The Red Swordsman: Shattered Fragment
by Mataras
Summary: Comrades. Beaters. Friends. Misfits. Family. Even with these names in common, the two of them could hardly be more different in the end. One brought hope to those he met. The other, despair and horror. While the Black Swordsman was the reluctant hero, his brother went on to embrace the role of 'destroyer' with terrible eagerness. This is his story. (Disclaimers on Sword Art Online)
1. The Red Swordsman

**A/N: Here it is, the beginning of an adventure that has been nearly a year in the making. I sincerely hope you enjoy what I have done with the story this time around, because it just might be my finest work to date.**

 **For those of you that have read an earlier version of the Red Swordsman story before, forget everything you knew about Mataras and the Moonlit Black Cats. Read this tale knowing that very few things will be the same as before.**

 **Opening Song: Crossing Field by Nathan Sharp (NateWantstoBattle).**

* * *

The Red Swordsman

The stab to my shoulder caused no blood to spurt out, though the implications of the wound were just as serious. The bar in the upper-left corner of my vision shrank by about ten percent as a result of the wound. I clucked my tongue with distaste and leaped backwards to give myself some distance from my opponent.

Eyeing my enemy with renewed caution, I forced myself to re-examine its movements and the weapons it carried to avoid any further mistakes like the careless parry that had cost me precious health points. The thing standing before me was, of course, no ordinary soldier or fighter. It had the appearance of a tall, thin, bipedal blue lizard. Its eyes glowed an unholy red as it bared its white, needle-like teeth at me in a hiss while settling into a slight crouch.

As if all of that wasn't odd enough in it of itself, _it_ was holding the curved sword that had put a chip in my shoulder- so to speak. The rounded shield it carried in its opposing hand and light armor on its chest and head had thus far deflected a good number of my own attempts to strike it down, but that was going to have to change soon, I knew.

The walking lizard wasn't real, of course. Or perhaps 'tangible' is a better word.

It was an AI program generated and controlled by a system and designated with a single purpose: to destroy the first non-NPC character it came across in its endless wanderings of the dungeon I had made my way into.

The dungeon I was in was also made up of computer code and data. As were the rocks surrounding me on either side of the winding pass that made up a single passageway in the maze I was fighting through. Everything I touched, tasted, saw, heard, and even smelled in this dungeon- in this world- had no more tangibility than a series of ones and zeroes on a laptop screen. It was all just data.

The only things I suppose I could call real were the memories I had of this place, and all the events that had happened in the two years that I had been trapped inside of it. Others might have been able to argue that the bonds we formed with our fellow prisoners was something that transcended the empty feeling that came from knowing that everything we had and were was simple binary coding, but I had long since left such things behind me.

Only one thing mattered to me anymore: striking back at the system that had taken everything precious from me in any way I could. In every way I could. At every opportunity I had.

Gripping my own sword with new determination, I forced my wrist to relax as I counted down the seconds until the creature, otherwise known in this world as a 'Lizardman', would attack again. _A loose wrist can make all the difference_ , I remembered, my own words echoing in my mind. _A stiff arm can mean the end._ Before my mind could wander any further into places I had forbidden myself to revisit, the blue monster took a half-step forward, and my hard-wired instincts kicked in.

My enemy's silver saber came up and glowed orange, indicating that a sword skill had been engaged, and now it only needed to be executed by the wielder. Moving my dark red blade to nearly brush my shoulder, I felt the hilt vibrate, and a familiar thrill go through my arm as the Guilty Thorn glowed with a cyan light, casting a pale glow on my clothes and face.

The cards were all on the table. It was about timing now.

Motion! The Lizardman shot forward, sword trailing a streak of light like a meteor in the night sky. A very deadly meteor that was aimed to take my head off.

I ducked down below the sword as it split the air where I had been less than a second ago.

"Missed," I growled. Swinging my arm as fast as I could, my sword glowed almost as if delighted while it struck into the lizardman four times in rapid succession. My 'muscles' moved almost of their own will, the scarlet blade in my hand dancing in a pattern called 'Horizontal Square', a four-part attack sequence that left tremendous damage on my foe, the evidence being the huge red gashes lining its abdomen and back. Again, there was no blood, but there were a few red sparkles that could have resembled something akin to blood that floated out of the wounds briefly before fading out of existence.

The monster hissed angrily, turning to bring its sword around for another try at my shoulder, but this time I was well aware of its patterns. I spun to the side, out of the reach of its long, thin arms, and rested my blade near my waist, this time the red metal acquiring a white sheen of light.

"Now you die," I grunted as I leaped forward, my speed rivaling that of a bullet from a rifle. My sword came up in a single, brilliant flash of motion that left another red gash in my enemy, this one starting at the left hip and ending at the top of its ugly, helmeted head.

I said nothing as it swelled with white light and exploded into thousands of blue-and-green shards. Not gooey and smelly bits of flesh and bone, mind you- just tiny crystals that faded like the night stars in the wake of a rising sun that left behind no trace that anything had ever been there at all.

This is death in this world. Instantaneous, often without any time to reflect on what the end means for you, or even the chance to reach out to your loved ones before the void claims your life. Your past does not rush to visit you one last time, and your future abandons you forever.

 _This is the world of blade and skill_ , I repeated in my head as I sank down against the rough stone wall that lined the open passageway. _Death will claim those that do not remember this doctrine._

My breath was coming out in rapid gasps, though it was more of a habit than anything. In this world, my body did not require oxygen to function, nor did sweat line my brow as it would have back home after such a strenuous exercise. Although it was very likely that my flesh-and-blood vessel was both gasping for breath and sweating freely from the stress it imagined itself to be in, this did nothing to directly affect my physical form in Aincrad. Although, I suppose it was possible that whatever little connection I had to my real body could be reflected in some routine habits like breathing.

I found myself sitting in some soft grass with flowers decorating the path here and there, but none of that held my attention. My mind wandered to what was beyond these verdant fields, in the caves that loomed in the distance. Looking up to the upper-right corner of my vision, the opposite side of where my health gauge was displayed, I noted that it was about three o' clock in the afternoon, or 15:00 in Standard Aincrad Time.

"If you hurry up today, you might make it," a soft, gentle voice said on my right. I rolled my head over to see a young girl dressed in a rich blue garment staring past me, and into the caves beyond. One of her slender eyebrows went up in amusement as I scowled at her, willing her to leave me be.

Seeing that she would not be deterred, I stood up and turned my back on the route, brushing past her without a word.

"Are you just going the opposite direction of what I suggested because you're hoping it'll get me to leave?" the girl teased me. "Did you consider the fact that I might be using reverse-psychology to get you to go home so you'll be safe for the night?"

"If you are, it was my idea," I replied under my breath.

"Whoa, did you actually just acknowledge that I spoke to you?" she pretended to be surprised. "He _can_ improve!"

 _Truly, either my mind hates me, or this game does_ , I thought sourly as I started to sift through my inventory as I walked. _Either way, I detest both._

"You've come pretty far in this place, you know," the girl said as she strode at an easy pace about ten feet behind me. "Further than any of the others I've seen here."

 _I'm not like the others,_ I thought to myself.

"Still, it's not like anyone here is really capable of matching you," she continued, almost echoing my thoughts. "You're nothing if not unique. Of course, I knew that from the start, but I can honestly say that you've really gone past everyone's expectations, even mine."

 _Go away, Fragment,_ I growled inside my head. _I want nothing to do with you. You only serve as a reminder… Everything that ever mattered to me is gone, and all I'm left with are the memories of a life that is long past._

"You know, one of these days, everyone and everything _is_ gonna catch up with you," my ever-present companion said in a more serious tone. "Your only choice is if you want to go and confront them on your terms, or wait for them to hunt you down."

A dark smile twisted my lips at that. _They can hunt for me all they want,_ I nearly chuckled to myself. _But the Red Swordsman is more myth than man now. And myths can live on without their creators…_

"No one can outrun the end," the girl said, almost as if she could hear my thoughts. "You know that better than anyone, so stop trying to pretend otherwise."

I didn't let her see my face, but her words did cause me to flinch at some particularly painful memories that I quickly forced myself to repress. "Cease and desist," I snapped as I stopped walking in place. "I carry enough on my shoulders, apparition. I don't need ghosts reminding me of them."

"No, but I think it would do you some good to remember that there are others that would share in your load if you'd just let 'em," the girl said as she too, stopped walking and stood firmly on the path.

"The Red Swordsman walks alone to avoid bloodying the hands of others, remember?" I shot back as I resumed walking at a brisk pace.

"Then maybe the 'Red Swordsman' is the problem," my companion said tightly.

"That's right," I nodded. "He's my problem, and no one else's."

I heard a heavy sigh and the words, "You've always been stubborn, but this is just asinine. You from two years ago would be disgusted with what you are now."

"That's why he's gone, and I'm here," I replied flatly, her lectures beginning to get under my skin. "Because somebody has to do what I do. And since I don't see anyone else with the guts _and_ the qualifications for the position, I'll stay my course."

"Who made you the authority on justice in this world?" the girl demanded.

I stopped walking again and turned around to give a very cold glare. "You know very well who," I growled slowly.

"Do you even remember them?" she asked after a moment. "I mean, actually remember _them_? Or does your head have nothing but enemies to kill in there?"

My gaze narrowed further with anger, but I could not deny the truth to my own mind, especially since she already knew the answer. "I remember them," I snapped as I walked away. "I remember all of them. The Lightning Flash, the Black Swordsman… the Cats… Even her." I paused in my speaking as I forced myself to swallow a small lump that served to only anger me further. "Of course I remember the people that made me what I am."

"Then you don't remember them at all, because they didn't create the Red Swordsman," the girl said. "Maybe you should spend some time reflecting on who they were- and where you came from."

"You're just stuck in the past," I replied hotly. "That's why you can't see what the future holds for me- for us."

"The past can be a great adviser for the future, remember?" she replied. "Come on- there's no one else around to hear you. Let's take a trip down memory lane, just you and me. If nothing else, you can pretend that you're telling her a bedtime story again."

I glared at her again, but all she did in response was give me a winning smile. Knowing just how stubborn she was and the fact that some part of me did still long for the times gone by, I finally gave in. "Fine," I growled. "If I do that, will you leave me alone?"

"No promises," she grinned.

"At least it's not an outright 'no," I sighed. "Where do you want to start, your highness?"

"Let's take it from the top," she said.

"All the way back?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep," she nodded. "C'mon. It's a long walk home, and you cleared out all the monsters on the way here."

"Rrgh…" I ground my teeth in frustration, but I knew she was right. "All right… Day One: the day we all got screwed over."

"Wow, I can really feel your enthusiasm," she said sarcastically. "C'mon, put some more effort into it!"

"You know I'm already hating this," I said flatly.

"You hate everything," she retorted.

"Fair enough," I admitted after a brief pause. "Fine. Once upon a time, a boy in high school was on his way to pick up his little sister…"

* * *

This world is called Sword Art Online. We were told it was a game- now we know it to be a death trap.

A castle of immeasurable size floats in the sky, as if held by the invisible hand of God Himself. This is the place we call home- and our prison.

A team of self-proclaimed experts spent a month examining the first floor to come to the conclusion that the diameter is just over six miles in total. But seeing as that is just a single floor out of one hundred, it's nearly impossible to guess just how much data the entire structure itself represents.

Within these floors are open grass plains, deep verdant forests, cool lakes, freezing mountains, burning lava pits, yawning chasms, vast deserts, and more. Of course, as fate would have it, the areas given the most detail and care by their creator are the dungeons that lie in these diverse landscapes. Each one is filled to the brim with monsters and traps, and while both of these are lethal without one to support the other, if you put them together, the challenge they present is almost impossible to surmount.

Yet surpassed it we have. Although our numbers have slowly dwindled over the last two years to be just over six thousand survivors of our original ten thousand players, the human race of Castle Aincrad has persevered and pressed on against impossible odds to conquer seventy-three floors of the death game.

On floor seventy-four, the players continue to push forward and fight to secure our freedom that was promised to us. Every day the people get closer to the top floor, they get another day closer to home.

But for me, home is a place beyond my reach. My home is gone, and gone I will stay, forever doomed to wander the endless sky castle. My sins are too many, my crimes too great to ever return to my old life. My hands have spilled a river of crimson tears, and my cloak treads heavily with the weight of the lives I have claimed. My hands have borne the color of my namesake too many times for far too long, and now I am beyond redemption.

I am the Red Swordsman, and this is my story.

* * *

 **Kirito: Whoa now.**

 **Mataras: What is it?**

 **Kirito: That was a pretty intense opening. I wasn't expecting that tone, to be honest.**

 **Mataras: Why is that?**

 **Kirito: I guess I'm just used to you being more mellowed out. Probably because it's been a long time since we've seen you being consistently angry.**

 **Mataras: True. Still, it's not like my anger ever really went away in the past stories. I just learned to have a better handle on it.**

 **Sachi: Yeah, and you turned out to be pretty cool when you did.**

 **Mataras: Thanks, Sachi. By the way, just a quick reminder, the first full-length chapter goes up on Thanksgiving Day, so don't miss out on that!**

 **Yui: But Uncle, this chapter was already the length of your average chapter in your other stories.**

 **Mataras: Hehe, this wasn't even one-fifth the length of the first chapter. Try getting your mind around that one.**

 **Yui: Whoa...**

 **Asuna: Gotta say, I'm kinda sad already.**

 **Mataras: Why is that?**

 **Asuna: Well, I know you based this intro off the first chapter in the light novel version of Sword Art Online, so we're looking at you two years into the game. And it seems like Sachi dies in this version, since you were talking to her Hollow.**

 **Mataras: That wasn't Sachi.**

 **Sachi: It wasn't?!**

 **Asuna: What?!**

 **Kirito: Come again?!**

 **Mataras: Why are you all surprised?**

 **Kirito: But... You always called Sachi your sister in the Red Swordsman!**

 **Mataras: So I did. And I will again.**

 **Asuna: Then who wa-**

 **Victoria: 'Sup guys?**

* * *

 **Closing Song: Ignition by TobyMac**


	2. Sword Art Online

**A/N: Let it begin in earnest.**

 **This is the story in which I will redouble my efforts in striving to be a better writer, and I hope that my effort yields fruit. In this venture, I will touch back on my roots as a writer, composing a poem for the beginning of each chapter that will give hints and set the mood for those that read it. I truly hope that everyone that reads this story will be moved by it in some manner, and that you feel free to say how it did so either by leaving a review, or sending me a private message. Happy Thanksgiving to my friends here, both new and old. I welcome you.**

 **OP song: Masayume Chasing by Boa**

* * *

 _As the page closes  
On what you thought was your tale  
So starts your legend_

* * *

Sword Art Online

The chilly autumn air reminded me once again that I should have listened to my mother and taken an overcoat to go on top of my school blazer. _Surprise, surprise_ , I thought as I shivered in my blazer. _You didn't listen to Mom and you paid for it. Am I ever going to learn…?_

The dark blue coat that was part of my uniform did a good job of keeping the wind from touching my skin, but offered little in the way of insulation. The brown pants and shoes were warm enough at least, but my ears, cheeks, and nose were devoid of sensation at this point. _I should have stayed in the library until the last bell rang_ , I thought dejectedly as another breeze set another round of shivers through my body.

I had just gotten out of my study period for school, which I had chosen to take place during my final slot every day for this semester. I liked it that way, because I could either choose to study quietly in the library, like I had just done, or I could make my way home early if I had a project to do at that time. Fortunately, I had no long-term assignments due that I hadn't already gotten ahead on, so my schedule would be fairly free this afternoon- just as I had planned it.

"Still have that test coming up," I sighed to myself as I went over the new math formulas that I had learned for calculus that morning, trying to commit them to long-term memory so that I would have them down pat for the upcoming exams before winter break. Unfortunately, unlike my father, who was a mathematical genius that did algorithms in his head, arithmetic was my weakest subject. He was kind enough not to say it, but I could tell that he was disappointed that his eldest child, not to mention his only son, did not take after his own field of work with much enthusiasm.

Still, it's not like I was a delinquent that neglected my studies. I maintained higher-than-average grades, even for Japan's standards, though I admit it was mostly because I had a lot of help, not because of any particular skill set of mine. Nonetheless, I was a diligent student if nothing else.

Even with the challenge of growing up in an entirely different culture and country of my birth, I managed to have what you might call a 'normal' childhood. I went to school, did my work, and practiced martial arts as both a hobby and a way of keeping fit, though I definitely lacked an ideal muscle frame. I also loved to play video games, especially with my younger sister and my best friend.

Victoria was my only sibling, and since Dad's work had brought us over to the orient, where there was a huge language barrier and a lack of kids willing to overcome it in order to befriend us, she was also one of my closest friends and confidant. She was a kind-hearted, sensitive soul that was always more interested in looking out for others before herself. She would always be the first to approach someone that looked troubled, and the last one to draw attention to herself if something was bothering her.

Of course, this made her a perfect candidate to become the school's pariah, and she suffered many months in isolation at school, until one of the people tormenting her made the mistake of slapping her hard enough to leave a bruise when she was in sixth grade. Once I managed to get her to tell me who had done it to her, I ditched class the next day and shadowed them without her knowing to catch the culprits myself.

As soon as I spotted them, I put to use my dedication to the art of Okinawan Karate. The kid ended up in the hospital with several broken ribs, and I received an academic suspension for ditching class and beating up a younger student, but the message had been sent loud and clear: respect my sister, or don't interact with her at all.

After that, her life became much easier at school, and other students that had originally avoided her out of the fear of becoming social outcasts started to warm up to her. As for my own school life, people tended to avoid more than before, which suited me just fine. I was a loner by nature, though my loyalty was unquestionable if someone wanted to break down my barriers and grow to call me friend.

Only a handful of people at school made an effort to be friendly with me, and out of all of them, I think I would go so far as to say that only one person was my true friend.

Her name was Reiko, and we had been friends since we were both in grade school. Shortly after my family had moved into Tokyo, I found myself in the library for lunch more often than not out of a desire to avoid people that I could barely talk to due to my Japanese being barely qualified as rudimentary, and to immerse myself in the manga collections that they had. The way that they told stories and the characters that expressed these tales were so different from our own storytelling style back home that I couldn't help but be fascinated by them.

It was during one of these browsing sessions that Reiko and I first encountered one another. I had found a manga of 'Dragon Ball' that I was just about to reach for when another hand intercepted my grip. My first instinct had been to try and take the comic by force, but when I noticed the fact that the one who had taken it was a girl, I had frozen in place, unsure of how to proceed.

She had looked down at the comic in her hand, then back at me, and seemed to realize that I had wanted it for myself. She made to hand it over to me, but I tried to insist that she take it instead of me, even though my Japanese was slow and broken-sounding.

After a moment of me fumbling with my words, she had surprised me by asking in perfect English, "You're the new kid, aren't you? The one from America?"

"Wha-?" I gaped. "You speak English?"

"Better than you speak Japanese," she had smiled at me.

Normally, such a comment would have angered me, but this time I found it funny. Without really knowing why, I started laughing at her, which caused her to laugh back at me, and before we knew it, we were both laughing so hard that we were kicked out of the library for the day.

Reiko was my best friend from that day forward, and as she and I became more familiar with one another, I introduced her to Victoria, who took a very quick liking to her as well.

Growing up, Reiko's parents had insisted on making her speak English as well as her native language in the hopes that it would help her in any career she might one day choose. Her mother was fluent in our dialect from her time spent overseas studying at different colleges, and her father spoke well enough to get by whenever his work took him to America every few months.

Reiko used her knowledge of both languages to help Victoria and I overcome the language barrier that had been erected between us and a lot of our classmates and neighbors, something for which I would always be grateful. It helped a great deal that she was also willing to help Victoria and me with our studies after class on most days- we never would have maintained our grade-point-average without her help. She knew all kinds of study tricks and ways to memorize information that I never would have thought of, and she came up with quite a number of them on her own.

"Hey there," a familiar voice snapped me out of my reverie, startling me enough to make me jerk around with surprise to see the smiling face of Reiko. Her brown eyes sparkled with amusement even as the wind brushed through her long matching locks.

 _Speak of the devil,_ I thought as I released a breath I didn't realize that I had been holding. Out loud, I said, "I should attach a bell to you."

"But then I couldn't surprise you," she pretended to pout.

"You've known me long enough to know that I hate surprises," I replied with an arched eyebrow.

"Unless it's a video game," she tossed back cheerily.

"Fair enough," I nodded. The thought of what was to come that afternoon sent a new wave of shivers through my body, but this time it had nothing to do with the cold. "I can't wait to see what kind of surprises we're gonna get today. Victoria and I are going to get on as soon as we get home."

"Your folks are letting you on for the launch?" she asked, mildly surprised. "I'd have thought that your mom would have at least made you do your homework first." The official start of SAO was set to take place at three o'clock that afternoon.

"We got ahead on our assignments, so Dad convinced her to let us have it," I replied. "Besides, it's a Friday night. It's not like we have school in the morning."

"That's true," Reiko acknowledged. "Cool, then. I'll be diving in with you guys, if that's still okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" I smiled at her. "We need our treasure hunter to get us some good loot before anyone else."

In the games we had all played together in the past, we each had a role that we stuck to no matter what adventure we went on. Reiko served as our quest-finder and treasure hunter, Victoria acted as our healer, and I assumed the role of team tank, protecting both of them as well as I could. The only thing we were really lacking in was a stab unit, but most of the time we were able to get by without much difficulty.

Since we were all familiar with the world of MMORPG's, today's highly-anticipated launch of the first ever virtual reality MMO had us all nothing less than excited. All three of us had already become familiar with the atmosphere of the virtual world with the help of our own NerveGear devices- a helmet that basically put your body to sleep and then put your mind inside of a video game.

So far, it had mostly been simple games like escaping from mazes or street-fighter-type combat that offered very little in the way of exploration or campaigns that were so addicting to MMO players like myself and the girls.

But Sword Art Online promised all of the above, and more. It would be the first open-world game to use the NerveGear, and the first one to be on a server where players could interact with more than four players at a time. As a matter of fact, the day of the launch would be hosting ten thousand players, give or take, due to the fact that only that many hardcopies had been released thus far.

People had waited in line for up to three days to get ahold of their copy, and the stores were all sold out within the hour of the release. I had been more fortunate in the process of acquiring my copy of the game than those that had camped out in front of the stores just to save their spot in line. A friend of mine by the name of Kazuma had been a beta tester for SAO, and had thus received a complimentary copy. But since he was now doing both day and night school, he would no longer have time to play the game.

Upon discovering this fact, I had approached him with the intent of buying it at twice the store price, but he had surprised me by telling me that I could have it on the condition that I let him borrow it for his own use whenever he had free time. When I asked about the unexpected generosity, he had smiled and said, "Victoria helped my kid siblings get past our parent's divorce. I know this isn't much in the way of a thank-you to her, but pass on my regards, would you?"

I had readily agreed to the conditions he had laid out, and I had seldom been happier to give my sister good news. And when we had found out that Reiko's father had acquired a copy for his daughter since he was one of the shareholders of Argus, the company that would be running SAO's server, it made the prospect of adventuring in the new world even better.

"So you're just bringing me along for my lock-picking skills, is that it?" Reiko said in response to my explanation.

"What, no…" I grinned lazily at my friend. "You're a very important member of our team, and it wouldn't be the same without you."

"Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?" she said as she tried to raise one eyebrow, but only succeeded in lifting them both.

"Yes I am, and you're still not doing it right," I told her. She slapped me on the arm in response, causing me to laugh at her angry face.

"Jerk," she muttered. She had been trying for years to master my habit of raising a single eyebrow to express a variety of emotions, though it was usually disbelief or mild amusement.

I was about to utter a retort, but we were interrupted by the sound of the bell that indicated that the day was over for middle school. "To be continued," I said as kids began to emerge from the building that we were standing in front of.

"Fine," she grumbled as she joined me in keeping an eye out for my younger sibling. It didn't take long for us to spot her. She came running at me like a streak of lightning through the crowds, and I knew what was coming next.

"Oh no," I grimaced just before she full-on slammed into me with a bear hug that almost knocked me over, but I managed to regain my balance reasonably quickly. "You'd think I would know better than to expect otherwise from you," I grunted as I put my arm around her shoulders to return the hug. "You should have been on the girl's football team."

Victoria smiled brightly as she drew back and said, "Nah, I like track better- nobody's trying to cave my face in that way." She was a slim girl with legs like steel springs and a longer torso that put her at slightly above-average height, though she was still a good head shorter than me. She shared my pale complexion, but unlike my large nose and average-sized mouth, she was on the smaller side for both of those features. Her oval face and hazel eyes were framed by brown hair that matched my own hair color.

"And yet you think it's okay to try to break my ribs whenever you say hi," I said as I rubbed my sore abdomen to exaggerate my point.

"Aw, do you need an ice pack?" Reiko said in a tone that one would use to ask a toddler if they were hurt. "Does the Karate Kid have a boo-boo?"

"Reiko, I will draw mobs to you and then leave you to fend for yourself," I said as we all started walking towards our neighborhood, separating ourselves from the clamoring crowd of children that continued to pour out of the middle school.

"Nah, you're too much of a gentleman to do that," she shot back with a wicked smile.

"That's not an excuse to take advantage of him," Victoria interjected. "That's reserved for younger siblings."

"Aw come on, don't I count as a member of the family?" Reiko pretended to complain.

"Sure, if you want to be that one annoying cousin that no one wants to sit next to at the weddings," I smirked. Reiko's jaw dropped in mild shock while Victoria swatted my arm.

"You're kidding, right?" Reiko asked, eyes wide.

"Of course I am!" I said as I rubbed my arm while my sister gave me a warning glare. "Sheesh, take a joke…"

"But really, is that how you guys see me?" Reiko asked worriedly.

"No, my brother's just insensitive," Victoria said while rolling her eyes. "If you were part of our family, I promise I'd sit next to you at the weddings and family reunions."

"What about at birthday parties?" Reiko asked with the ghost of a smile.

"Let's not get crazy, girl," Victoria laughed, bringing a smile out of our friend. I hid a smile of my own as I watched them chatter about their school day and which teacher was overdoing it on the homework loads.

This was classic Victoria, I thought. Quick to defend both sides and point out the wrongs while managing to have everyone smiling at the end. Truly, she was a one-of-a-kind.

* * *

The walk to Reiko's house took about fifteen minutes, and since school let out at half-past two, that meant my sister and I had a little over ten minutes to be home in time for the launch.

"See you guys in a few," she said as she walked through the gate that led to her home. Then a thought struck her, and she turned around to ask, "Did you guys pick your handles?" In the virtual world, it was a well-known fact that using your real name was taboo, so everyone had to choose an alter ego to go by therein. Some names were cleverly crafted while others were obviously meant to be a joke or a hodgepodge of several names put together.

"I'm going with 'Saphira," Victoria answered. "For no other reason than blue is the coolest color around."

"Nice," Reiko nodded with approval. "I'll be going with my usual, 'Rivka." Victoria and I nodded in acknowledgement. She had used that name in two other MMO's that we had played together in, so it would be well-familiar to us. "What about you?" The question was aimed at me.

"I'm hoping that 'Shadow' isn't taken before I can get it," I shrugged. "If not, I'll just pick something else and meet up with you at the north gate like we planned."

"Sounds good," Reiko nodded. "Later, then." And she turned around after giving us a small wave of farewell to go up the steps and into her home.

"C'mon, let's get going," Victoria said excitedly, switching to English with her hazel eyes wide with anticipation. "We can make it before the launch if we run."

"Race you?" I grinned as I replied in the same dialect. It wasn't uncommon for us to switch to speaking our native language whenever it was just the two of us, or if our parents were home for dinner.

"You're challenging me to a race?" she giggled. "Last I checked, shorin-ryu wasn't known for improving your cardio."

"Oh yeah?" I challenged her as I reset my school bag to rest on the small of my back. "Let's see what your track and field can do against muscles like these." I flexed my lean arm, which of course had a toned structure, but nothing impressive.

"Pfft," Victoria scoffed. "Fine- readyset _go_!" She took off from a standstill to leave me behind, yelling about not having a fair warning.

* * *

I didn't catch her, of course. She was one of the middle school's best runners, so I never really expected to beat her. I still didn't appreciate not being given a chance to get a proper start, though.

"Cheater," I gasped as I saw her standing on the porch looking impatiently at her watch.

"Loser," she winked as she spun on her heel and walked through the door.

"Little punk…" I sighed as I leaned against the post that the gate hinged on. The sound of a door slamming shut caught my attention, so I looked up in time to see a girl about Victoria's age with shorter black hair and blue eyes walk out of the neighbor's house and stop on the sidewalk to look up at one of the second-story windows.

Switching back to Japanese, I waved as I called out, "Good afternoon, Suguha-san."

"Oh, hi!" she said as she turned to look at me. "Sorry I didn't see you there. I was just about to head off to kendo practice."

"Right, Victoria said you have a tournament coming up?" I asked her politely. Our neighbor's, the Kirigaya family, had two kids, and the younger daughter was heavily invested in her martial arts training, probably even more than I was, a rare thing. She was also one of Victoria's classmates in home economics despite being almost two years younger, which is how we knew one another more than anything.

"Yeah, it's in a month," she said with a tired-looking smile. "I just hope Kazuto comes to see me compete…"

Kazuto was her older brother, and one of my classmates in mathematics, even though he too was a couple of years younger than his classmates. Although in his case, it was due to the fact that he was a mathematical prodigy, not a choice in elective. According to his family, he had built his first computer at the age of six out of spare parts.

Not that he would have told us any of that himself. He was the definition of a recluse, no friends at school, and no enemies to speak of either. He never spoke to anyone, the only exception being when he was called on to answer a question in class, which he would do accurately, swiftly, and emotionlessly. Some people thought he had sociopathic tendencies, but something about that didn't sound right to me.

He also spent all of his spare time on the internet, mostly in-game, especially ever since he was selected to be a part of the beta test for Sword Art Online. Apparently Suguha felt lonely and rejected by her brother, something she would talk to Victoria about on occasion. It made me feel for her, especially since the guy was in my class and I felt like there might be something I could say to him about it. At the same time, who was I to get involved with their familial matters?

Snapping myself out my thoughts, I replied with as much encouragement as I could, "Maybe he'll come watch you, even if it's only to learn some new sword moves for SAO."

"Yeah, maybe," she replied. "Speaking of, isn't that supposed to go live in a minute?"

"Oh right!" I said as I looked back at my home's door. I looked back at her and said, "Sorry to take off like this, but Victoria's waiting for me."

"It's cool," she smiled a little brighter. "I hope you two have fun together."

"Thanks," I said. Before I headed inside, I added, "Victoria told me that you're not a fan of video games, but maybe you should try them out at some point. Try seeing Kazuto's world." She made a face, and I smiled slightly at her and said, "Just think about it. Later!"

"See ya," she answered just before I made it inside my house.

* * *

I found Victoria in my room, where our NerveGears and console were resting, waiting to be used. She had just finished installing what I assumed was the cartridge for SAO, so we were good on that end. All that was left was to make the dive.

The NerveGear itself was a heavy blue helmet that sported a dark-lensed visor that served to shade the eyes as well as display time and battery life when plugged in and viewed from the inside. These were our gates to the other side of reality.

Each rig was capable of tuning itself to one person, meaning that each one had basic player data for both Victoria and I, each. For example, mine had my height, weight, and body type saved for its calibrations in creating a frame for any avatar that I created in-game, and the same held true for Victoria. We could change those features in-game, of course, but neither of us did so for the sake of the fact that it would be disorienting to suddenly be shorter, taller, thicker, thinner, or what have you.

"Ready?" my sister asked as she flopped down on my bed with her NerveGear in her hands.

"Oh, you know it," I grinned as I grabbed my own heavy rig, tossed off my shoes and blazer before laying down next to her. Together, we slipped on the heavy helmets and engaged the 'power' function. The helmets flickered to life, and in the upper-left corner of the visor, I saw the clock with the time 14:59 displayed.

"Almost the-" The time blinked to display 15:00.

"Let's do it," Victoria said as she raised a fist. I knuckled her smaller hand quickly, and we were ready to go.

" _Link, start!_ "

* * *

I found myself flying down a tunnel made up of hundreds of different colors that streaked past me faster than the eye could follow, no two bits of light colored exactly the same. It was mesmerizing, and I could have stared at the flying lights for hours had they not come to an abrupt stop and been replaced by five blue panels, each one labelled with one of the five senses.

One by one, sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing all blinked from blue to green, indicating that the calibrations for my senses were all still properly installed in my NerveGear. When that fell away, all that was left was a world of pure white, with nothing to break the uniformity.

Next came the registration process, which consisted of the usual, creating a username, password, and choosing whether or not to submit your email to be notified of upcoming events and special in-game deals.

After supplying the necessary information via a holographic keyboard that appeared at my waist height, I was intrigued when a mirror appeared out of the nothingness that surrounded me. In its reflection was not me, but a generic hero-type of character that one would think of when reading a novel.

A female computerized voice suddenly spoke from the void, sounding like it came from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Please choose from the options presented to you to create your avatar," it said. "You may speak to designate which features you wish to have altered. For example, saying 'Red eyes' will grant your avatar the corresponding feature. Please bear in mind that the only features that can be changed after you have finalized your decisions are hair styles and eye color with the use of in-game items. This will also help to calibrate your vocal settings for your time in Sword Art Online. When you have finished making your changes, simply say, 'calibration complete."

The voice ceased, and I stared at the mirror in front of me with my thumb and forefinger on my chin, trying to decide the image that I wanted to represent me in Sword Art Online. After a moment of quiet consideration, I said, "Set height to five foot, eleven inches." The avatar before me shrank by a few inches in height in response to my command.

"Nice," I grinned. "Now increase muscle mass slightly." Again, the mirror obeyed my commands, giving the body the muscles of an Olympian swimmer. "Change hair color to black and lengthen by three inches," I added, and again, the mirror gave me what I wanted.

I continued making adjustments until I had the exact image that I wanted, a capable-looking warrior with longer hair and dark blue eyes that fell just past his thick eyebrows. He had a square jaw like mine, but his nose was significantly smaller than my own, and his skin was tanned to perfection. The clothes he wore consisted of a red, long-sleeved shirt, brown pants, shoes, fingerless gloves, and a lightweight leather vest that would serve as basic armor for me.

"Calibration complete," I said in a firm voice.

"These changes cannot be undone," the voice said in response. "Are you sure you want to save these changes?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"Avatar appearance complete," the computer replied while the mirror faded away as if it had never been. "Please choose a weapon's class." An array of basic-looking weapons materialized in front of me, ranging from traditional one-handed swords to spears and axes.

I hesitated between choosing a scimitar, the curved blades of old that were fast and difficult to break, or a traditional sword, which had longer reach and more weight to it. Eventually, the longer reach became the deciding factor for me, and I reached out to grasp the handle of the floating one-handed sword.

"You have chosen the one-handed sword class," the computer said. "Is this correct?"

"Yes," I nodded again, and the weapons all vanished.

"Please choose a secondary starting skill," the voice said emotionlessly. This time, an array of parchments appeared before me, each one depicting a different picture. One was a set of lock picks, another the image of a hammer and an anvil, so on and so forth. The one that got my attention, however, was the image of a single eye that was wide open.

I reached out to touch it out of curiosity, and the voice said, "You have chosen the search skill. Is this correct?"

"System, can you elaborate on this skill?" I asked, hoping that the computer would understand me.

It did. "The search skill allows the user to detect players and monsters from long distance. Developing this skill can allow the user to track players, see players using the stealth skill, and find monsters that are more likely to have better drops."

"Then yes, I choose the search skill," I confirmed.

"Skill set confirmed," the computer replied as the scrolls vanished like the previous items. "Please enter a name for your avatar. This setting cannot be changed under any circumstances, and duplicate names are not allowed." A floating keyboard appeared in front of me that was made up entirely of blue buttons.

 _No duplicates, huh?_ I thought as I typed in the names 'Shadow'. _Let's just hope that-_

"Error, name invalid," the system announced.

 _Crap_. I mulled over a few names in my head before typing in the name 'Gabriel'. Unsurprisingly, the name was already taken. _Double-crap._

I pinched my chin again as I went over some more names until I finally chanced upon one that I thought sounded pretty cool as long as I ignored the translation. _Let's just hope no one that speaks Spanish sees my name_ , I thought as I typed in the name 'Mataras'.

"Are you certain that this is the name you wish to use in Sword Art Online?" the computer asked.

"Yes," I affirmed.

"Avatar calibration complete," was the reply as the keyboard disintegrated. "Welcome to Sword Art Online- good luck player!" At the end of the sentence, I was mildly surprised that the voice actually gained some enthusiasm before I found myself falling down another tunnel, this one laced with lightning and colored with all the shades of blue imaginable.

* * *

When I finally felt my feet settle on solid ground, there was only darkness around me, though I could hear the sounds of a crowd in a busy city. I frowned, concerned that the NerveGear's calibration settings for my eyes might have been undone somehow.

However, it was only a couple of seconds before I realized that my virtual eyes were simply closed, not dysfunctional. As soon as I realized this, I snapped them open to take my first sight of Aincrad, the floating castle of Sword Art Online.

All around me was a vast multitude of people, many of them tall and slim with faces that I could tell were carefully crafted to look stunningly beautiful, or heroically handsome. As far as I could tell, there was a gender ratio of about five men to four girls, though given previous experiences with MMO's and the internet in general, I knew better than to trust anyone's appearance.

The ground upon which I stood was a cool gray, made up of hundreds of thousands of cemented cobblestones. About a hundred yards to my right stood a tall decoration that somewhat resembled the Washington Monument back home in America. The sandy-colored walls that rose up around us in a circular pattern that left an open sky made the courtyard resemble a friendlier version of the Coliseum that stood in Rome. The only breaks in these walls were two entrances, of which I had seen before on Argus' home website under the gallery of pre-game photos for Sword Art Online. Atop one of these entrances was a massive bell that looked like it could echo across the whole floor if it was rung properly.

However, I remembered that I had more pressing matters than sightseeing at the moment. _I need to find Reiko and Victoria,_ I thought as I recalled how to open the menu in SAO. In other games, of course, all one needed to do was hit the 'escape' button to bring up an in-game menu, but with the NerveGear, it worked a little different than that. I held up my right hand, extended my two pointer and index fingers, and brought them down in a sharp swiping motion. With a sound akin to high-pitched bells, the menu appeared before me, made up of several white tabs that floated at the perfect angle for me to read without having to look down too hard.

The map, the very object of my search, had materialized on the left of the white tabs. It displayed the name of my location, as well as a complete map of the city I was currently in, called the Town of Beginnings, though the bluish features blurred out past the walls of the safe zone. If SAO ran true to the form of most MMO's, I would not be able to access that map data unless I went out and saw each location for myself.

However, obtaining data on the wider areas of the map was not my current purgative. The blue hologram of a map was set on a grid-styled plane that displayed a compass on the bottom. With a quick glance between the map and the compass, I was able to determine that I had spawned in next to the eastern-most part of the plaza.

"Meh, could've been worse," I muttered as let my hand relax at my side, which caused the menu to sweep to the right and fade away. Now that I had my bearings, it was just a matter of wading my way through the crowd of several thousand people to make my way to the northern gate.

It took me about ten minutes of shouldering past and weaving through the crowds before I made it close to my goal. About a hundred yards from the gateway, however, I found myself being blocked by a young woman with bright blue eyes, long black tresses, and a one-handed sword at her waist. "Going somewhere in a rush?" she smiled at me.

"Kind of, so I need to be on my way," I said as I tried to move past her. However, she simply sidestepped to move directly into my path again. I narrowed my eyes at her and said, "I'm only gonna ask you to step aside one time."

"Wow, if that's how you greet people whenever you first meet 'em, no wonder you have a hard time making friends," the girl said with a raised eyebrow.

 _Wait a minute…_ My eyes widened. I looked her up and down again, this time noticing the fact that her sword was strapped to her right hip, which made her a leftie. And I only knew one left-handed girl that would address me so casually… "Saphira?" I asked in surprise. "That you, Sis?"

"Well, if you're name is Shadow, then yeah, that's me," she laughed a bit.

"I wish," I said with relief. _I thought I was about to have my first fight in-game, and the game hasn't even been up for half an hour!_ "The name Shadow was already taken, so I went with another one."

"Oh yeah?" Saphira, or Victoria as I knew her, replied as she tossed her lengthened hair. "What'd you settle for?"

"Mataras," I replied with a shrug. "The other ones that I wanted were taken, too."

"Probably cos you spent too long making that generic hero-type avatar," she replied with traces of amusement in her voice. "C'mon. Rivka's already waiting at the gateway."

"Two things," I said as I fell into step beside her. "One, my avatar isn't generic, it's awesome. Two- how did you know it was me?"

"The way you walk and stand," she replied easily. "Your feet kind of stick out to the side at about thirty-degree angles, so your stance and walking patterns are different than everyone else's."

I looked down with surprise to see that she was right. "How is my walking different?" I asked as I continued to examine myself, not sure of what she meant.

"I dunno," she shrugged. "It just is. It's one of the ways I always know how to find you in a crowd."

"That's weird," I said. "That's weird- you're weird."

"Look who I had for a role model," she tossed back easily.

"That…" I faltered. "That… Okay, you win."

"I thought so," she smiled back at me just as we reached the massive archway that stood at least three stories in height above us. A few people were talking in the pathway that was large enough for at least ten people to walk through shoulder-to-shoulder, but only one of them stood alone against the wall.

As Rivka, Reiko had chosen a taller model with long, rippling brown hair that was similar to her real coloring, save for the blond highlights that now streaked through her tresses. Her skin was a deeper tan than my avatar's skin tone- though not by much- and her eyes were a brilliant emerald green. On her back rested a long, plain-looking spear.

"Found him," Saphira said as we approached the girl.

"I was on my way to meet you," I argued. "You didn't have to come and find me, you know."

"Really?" Rivka said she stood up from her slouched position against the stone wall. "How'd you know which gate was the north one?"

"I opened my menu," I replied flatly. "Seriously guys, I'm not _that_ incompetent."

"With you, it never hurts to be sure," Saphira smirked. "Remember that time in W.O.W.? You couldn't open your map even after we explained it to you like five times."

"It was _three_ times, and I still hold to the fact that my keyboard was broken," I shot back.

"You don't need your keyboard for the map," Reiko replied. "You just-"

"I get it!" I snapped, bringing a smile out of both of them.

"He's so easy," Saphira laughed as they started walking through the gateway that would lead to the outer part of the city, where- according to a website called MMO today- we could find starter quests, vendors, and of course, even more players.

"If we're done picking on me, shall we get started on what we came here for?" I muttered to no one in particular.

"We're already doing it," Rivka replied over her shoulder as she and my sister hi-fived.

"Great…" I said sourly.

* * *

We made it out of the main courtyard fairly painlessly. The insults and jabs decreased dramatically as soon as we hit the streets and started seeing the hundreds of stalls that were open in the city. The stations could be described as 'various'. There were food stalls for snacks, full-blown restaurants, clothing stores, armories, jewelry, barbers… I even saw a dojo for practicing combat on dummies.

"This place has all the works," Saphira said as she started wandering towards a jewelry stand.

"No kidding," Rivka added as she also began to drift off the main path, towards a clothing shop.

"Hey, hey!" I said as I grabbed their arms and pulled them back closer to me. "Stay focused."

"We were," Saphira protested as she and Rivka pulled their arms away. "Nothing wrong with a little distraction here and there, though."

"We've all only got five health potion and five hundred col to each of our names right now," I reminded them. While walking, we had each used our menus to check our inventories to discover that we had all received the exact same starting package- a basic weapon that was already equipped to our avatar's, some starting armor that offered next to nothing in the way of stat boosts, which was also equipped when we spawned in, and lastly, some starting money and health potions.

"There's gotta be something around here for less than five hundred bucks," Saphira said as she eyed a necklace with a dark blue teardrop gem.

"Granted, but I really doubt that there's anything very pretty," I rolled my eyes. "Look, let's just get some farming done for a couple of hours, then I'll buy you something nice, okay?"

"Promise?" she asked as she looked at me with her best puppy-eyes impression.

"Yes, I promise," I said as I ruffled her hair, much to her protest. As she straightened her raven-colored locks, I encouraged her by saying, "Come on, we're burning daylight just walking around here. Let's go find the exit!"

* * *

"Wow…" I breathed as I gazed at the expanse before me. Saphira and Rivka were similarly affected, though no words escaped their lips as we gazed at Floor One of the floating castle, Aincrad.

Immediately before us lay a vast series of hills covered in a lush carpet of green grass. To the northwest, there was an immense forest that covered nearly a quarter of the land that we could see. Opposite to the woods in the northeast lay a gathering of large lakes that in some ways resembled the great lakes of Michigan back home in America. Although I'm pretty sure that the lakes in the eastern part of our country weren't held in floating island-type structures that spilled waterfalls into more lake below them. Beyond those, we could only see a series of mountains that blocked the entire northern half of the first floor map, so only the former beta testers would have a clue as to what was on the other side.

But personally, I was fine with that. Not only did I see a new world, I saw a great many paths yet unmarked, a series of journeys that had yet to be recorded, and an opportunity for adventures that could last a lifetime.

See, unlike in the real world, where venturing beyond your comfort zone could very well lead to landing in dangerous situations, the virtual world held no such danger. Here we could get the thrill of adventure without any fear of harm to ourselves. Even if we fell in combat, we would just respawn at the last-visited safe zone and begin our adventures anew.

"Well," I said after I felt that we had stared at the scenery for long enough. "We won't make any col just standing here. Shall we?"

"We shall," Saphira grinned as she grasped the pommel of her sword. Then a thought seemed to strike her, for she hesitated and turned to me, looking as though she needed to ask a question, then wondering if it was better not to speak it out loud.

"What's up?" I asked her.

"Did you remember to equip your sword skills?" she asked.

"I have to equip them manually?" I asked with surprise. "I just assumed that they would work since I already had my sword attached to my avatar."

"No, dummy," Saphira rolled her eyes.

"There's a bunch of passive skills that are equipped automatically, or that change depending on your equipment," Rivka explained. I assumed that she would have learned some of the things she knew from her father, since he had inside information. "Open up your menu and…"

She then walked me through the process of moving through my menu to locate my sword skills and equip them to my move palette. It took me a few moments of fumbling around with the holographic panels, but eventually I had my starting attack skills equipped and primed for use. There was the Horizontal, which was described as a simple one-hit attack. The other was the Sharp Nail, a three-hit combo attack that would do significantly more damage.

After seeing beta-test gameplay videos, we all knew that if your blow was successfully blocked or otherwise interfered with while in the midst of a chain attack, you would receive a penalty status that rendered you completely paralyzed for a certain amount of time that seemed to change in length depending on who was doing the attacking and what was blocking. So while Sharp Nail could potentially be more devastating to an opponent, it ran the risk of being intercepted and leaving me vulnerable for several precious seconds.

I was about to let the menu close again, but something caught my eye before I let my arm go slack at my side. I stared at the panel, reading the label silently before selecting it with a touch from my finger.

"Hey, watcha doing?" Saphira asked. "I thought you were in a big hurry."

"Hold on," I said firmly. "I'm just… Umm… Rivka? I think I should show you two something…" It turned so that they would be able to read over my shoulders.

"I can't see your menu," she said as rolled her eyes at me. "You have to set it to visible mode."

"How do I do that?" I asked her, my eyes still scanning my menu, and beginning to grow wider with surprise.

"The checkbox at the top left of the map panel," she answered. "Only people in our party should be able to see your menu, so privacy should still be okay."

"Good," I said as I hit the little checkbox with my left pointer finger. "Cos I don't think that broadcasting _this_ just yet would be the greatest idea."

"What're you talking about?" she asked as she looked over my shoulder to see my menu. Even as Saphira did the same on the other side of me, Rivka's jaw dropped and she looked at me with surprise. "Wow," she said blankly.

"What's wo- Oh, wow," Saphira said as she sped-read the text displayed in my menu. "Dude, that's cool."

"I'd be inclined to agree under most circumstances," I said as I finally let my menu shut. "But in this case…"

"How is that possibly a bad thing?" Saphira asked me.

"Have you seen how people treat players with rare equipment in other MMO's?" Rivka reminded her. "With an… asset… like that one, Mataras is gonna end up being Public Target Number One."

"People are going to never stop asking me how I 'really' got it unless I keep it under wraps," I added. "At least, for the time being. Maybe in a few months, or even weeks, people will be too busy with other things to even notice my little secret here." I grasped my sword handle, set just above my right shoulder, to emphasize my point. "Besides, I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun until then, even without using it."

"Meh, your call," Saphira shrugged. "I just thought you didn't give a thought to how other people view you."

"Be that as it may, I have no intention of getting swarmed by the masses, either," I replied firmly. "Now, come on. Let's go do what we came here to do. And before either of you start, I didn't come in here to have jokes made at my expense."

"Man, he's no fun," Rivka sighed as we began walking out into the fields.

"You're telling me?" Saphira pretended to complain. "I have to live with him."

* * *

 _Thwack!_ The sound of a skull slamming into the human abdomen was almost cartoonish, but the reality was that it wasn't the first time we'd heard it that day. As Saphira struggled to get to her feet, scowling at the mob, I muttered, "Okay, blue pig-thing, eight, our team, nil."

"Thanks for the commentary, but we know how to count," Rivka muttered sourly.

We were all on edge as the mob, dubbed by the game as a 'Frenzy Boar', squealed angrily and regarded us all with glowing red eyes. The pig itself was only about waist-high, covered in blue fur, and sporting shiny ivory tusks that were responsible for several red cut-like marks on our bodies. The wounds themselves caused no physical pain, but our wounded pride as gamers was another matter. Thus far, all of our attempts to strike it with our weapons had failed miserably- none of us had even been able to hit the thing yet.

"Anyone else feel like that stupid thing is moving too fast whenever we try to hit it?" Saphira grumbled. Her health was in the worst shape, already in the yellow zone, since she had taken the most hits from the mob.

"Yeah, but I don't get it," I said as I glared at the beast. The health bar displayed above its body was still colored green and completely filled in, just another reminder that our first day in SAO was not going how we wanted it. "This thing is basically a slime, so we should've been done with this fight before it even got started," I added under my breath.

"In all the videos we watched, they made the fighting look easy," Rivka said. "The players just let their swords light up, and then they would attack and kill the monsters. So why can't we…?" Her voice trailed off.

"Rivka?" I asked as the pig snorted as fixed its eyes on me. "What're you thinking?" The blue monster charged, so we scattered, the tusks just missing my leg.

"I'm thinking I just remembered something," my friend answered as we all stood firm once again. "Whenever the players' weapons would use a sword skill, they would strike a certain kind of pose before the attack would begin."

"Oh yeah," Saphira said as her face bore her expression of thoughtfulness. "Forgot about that…" She looked down at the sword in her hand, her brow furrowing further as she recalled the videos we had spent hours and hours watching and analyzing.

But if there was one thing that I had on my sister, it was recall speed- specifically if there was a video game, TV show, or movie involved. I couldn't exactly say it was perfect recall, but it was pretty close to it. So this time when the boar came running at us, my mind flashed back in an instant to one of the first videos we had seen, where a player armed with a sword had been facing down a boar just like this one.

Echoing the memory of the video, I brought my sword up to be perpendicular to my left collarbone and settled into a slight crouch, just as the beta player had. Almost as soon as I had settled into the stance, I felt the hilt of my weapon vibrate just the tiniest amount before a pale blue light shone from my blade.

"Whoa!" Saphira exclaimed in surprise as she and Rivka's attention was drawn by the glowing sword. "How'd you do that?!"

"Tell you in a sec!" I said just before I took a step forward and swung my arm hard as I could to slash into the Frenzy Boar's virtual flesh, leaving a massive red gash in its ribcage as it passed me by. To me, it almost seemed as though my body had moved ahead of what I had ordered it to, sort of like the sword skill had done the work for me.

This time when the pig squealed in protest, the sound was not one of anger, but one of pain. "Take that, fuzzy!" I laughed. The boar fixed its beady red eyes on me, and I felt my stomach drop as I realized that its health was in the yellow zone, not gone like I had thought it would be after the hit I had just given it. And for some reason, I was now unable to move. "Uh oh," I gulped.

"Mataras, get back!" Rivka's voice caught my attention just in time for me to see that her spearhead was glowing a similar hue to the one that my weapon had been when I had prepared the sword skill. And it was now levelled at our blue-furred enemy.

"Wha-? Oh," I said. Before I could protest the fact that I couldn't move, I felt my limbs relax and the ability to move of my free will was restored to me. So instead of talking, I simply moved out of the way as fast as I could. Not a moment later, the boar's tusks slashed through the air where I had been standing. Less than an instant after that, Rivka's spear stabbed into its midsection, causing it to squeal loudly once more. The health bar displayed above the body shrank rapidly from the yellow zone to the red before disappearing entirely.

The boar froze in place, stopped screaming, and began to glow with a brilliant white light. Beams spilled from the body before it swelled up and exploded into thousands of blue-and-green shimmering fragments. I looked over at Rivka, who appeared to be locked in place for a brief second before she could straighten herself and lean on the spear for support while grinning from ear to ear.

"You're welcome," she said.

"I had it on the ropes," I replied swiftly. I was about to say more, but then we each received a pop-up notification that interrupted our exchange, informing us of how much EXP and money we had earned from the kill. There was also a blank space that I assumed would have been filled in had we gotten an item to drop, but no such luck this time.

"Fifty col each," I nodded to myself. "Not bad."

"Better not get too attached to it," Rivka said. "You promised to buy us nice things once we finished hunting for the day."

"I promised Vi- Saphira, sorry, that I'd get her something, not you," I said with an arched eyebrow. "Nice try, though."

"Hey!" Saphira interjected. "I wanna know how you guys did that!"

"Are you sure you want a dummy like me showing you how to play the game?" I smirked at her in response.

"No, I wanted Rivka to show me," she shot back without missing a beat.

"But I'm the one with the sword," I replied, a little irritated that she'd had a comeback for my comeback.

"And I'm the one with the brains," Rivka smiled.

"Are you two ever going to stop picking on me?!" I half-shouted.

Saphira and Rivka's response was instant and in perfect unison. "Never!"

* * *

After Saphira became more interested in learning the mechanics behind the sword skills than picking on me, she quickly picked up on the movements to follow whenever she wanted to use an attack. It was a bit tricky teaching her the precise movements to use since she was a left-handed fighter, but Rivka and I managed well enough.

As we practiced, we discovered that after using a sword skill, we would become temporarily paralyzed, though the effect only lasted for less than a second. We would also notice a small icon next to our heath bars that would last for a few seconds that seemed to be some kind of countdown for how long it would take before we could use that particular sword skill again. While the icon was active, we could not repeat the sword skill, but as soon as it disappeared, we could activate it again. It seemed like a bother to me, but I supposed that as we unlocked more sword skills, it wouldn't be so much of a restriction.

After managing to execute a Horizontal skill that mirrored my own attack against the Frenzy Boar, Saphira whirled her sword in reverse before sheathing it at her waist. "It's kinda weird how our body almost moves before we actually begin the motion," she said. "At the same time, it does make us faster, so that's good."

"I'm sure we'll get used to it," I said. I also put away my weapon, done with experimenting for the time being. While Saphira had been practicing the movements on her own, I had been busy trying to figure out which pose to use to engage the Sharp Nail skill, which had taken a few moments to figure out. Once I had though, I was rewarded with a red glow shining from my sword, followed by two diagonal slashing attacks, followed by a finishing blow that left a horizontal line of crimson in its wake.

"I wonder if I'll learn some throwing skills with this thing?" Rivka said as she eyed her own weapon with interest. She too had figured out a secondary attack skill to use, though the name escaped me at the time.

"Even if you did, I wouldn't use it too often," I said. "Losing your weapon in the middle of a fight is just asking for all kinds of trouble."

"True," she nodded. She paused before pointing with her spear at a nearby hill, where light blue glow was beginning to shine. "Looks like some more are spawning in."

"Dibs!" Saphira said as she took off, running up the hill with her sword rising to execute a Horizontal attack.

"Oei, wait up!" I called after her, unsheathing my sword as I ran, with Rivka following right on my heels. As we reached the crest, we noticed that there was not one, but three boars moving to attack my sister.

She let loose with her sword skill on the one closest to her, leaving two on her right side, and closing in fast. Her blow made solid contact, and her target's health was drained by about two-thirds, just like mine had done when I had first used the skill. However, it wasn't dead, which meant that she was about to be in serious trouble.

"Rivka, mark!" I said as I brought my sword to the position needed for the Sharp Nail and she pulled up to be right by my side.

"Left!" she replied quickly.

"Go!" I shouted. I shot forward as fast as I could, even as Saphira was head-butted by her own quarry. I got in between the attacker and her before I unleashed the attack I had been preparing. My sword bit into the pig's hide twice before it exploded into a cloud of fragments, leaving my blade to slash through the remnants before my body stopped moving, the stiffening sensation from the post-motion effect already setting in.

This was a system that we had all developed in previous games for rescue scenarios in particular, though it also worked for attacking a group of mobs in general. The person flanking the leader would call out a target so that the leader could focus on the more immediate threat while also being able to know where his or her allies were in case they needed to call for backup or lend support. This also prevented us from charging at the same target and leaving other mobs open to attack us.

Just as the final pig moved to attack me, Saphira shot off of her feet and engaged the sword skill function once more. "You gotta get through me first!" she cried as she slammed into the pig with a Sharp Nail combo, much to my surprise.

"Whoa!" I yelped as the pig promptly exploded. "How'd you figure that out so quick?!"

"I watched you while you attacked that other boar," she said as she waited for the post-motion paralysis to go away and I moved to guard her while Rivka finished dealing with her own quarry. "I just needed to mimic the initial movement, and ka-pow, bye-bye little piggy." She smiled as she straightened herself and sheathed her sword again.

Once again, we were all given notice of our spoils since the fight was over. This time, in addition to the money and experience points that we expected, Saphira reported that she had been rewarded with a boar's broken tusk. The item itself was useless to us, but it could be sold to an NPC back in town for some extra col.

Still… "That was a little too close," I said as I closed the notification by waving it to the side. "Let's try to not get caught in a trap like that again."

"That hardly counted as a trap," Saphira protested.

"I know, but this is still new territory for all of us, not to mention we're still figuring out the mechanics of this game," I replied patiently. "And I know, we'll just respawn at the last safe zone we visited if we die, but I'd rather not waste time going back and forth between the fields and towns, if it's all the same to you guys."

"Yeah, I'm with Mataras on this one," Rivka nodded.

"Okay, okay," Saphira rolled her eyes. "I'll be more careful- for now. But once we have this whole thing figured out, I'm not holding back."

"Neither will I, believe me," I grinned. "Now… Where were we?"

"Killing pigs?" Rivka said as she pointed at a smaller hill, where a pair of boars were idling about. From our vantage point, we could also see that there were other players headed their way.

"Rivka, mark," I said as we began running down the hill.

* * *

We hunted non-stop until the sun began to descend in the horizon. As we progressed through the floor, we began to figure out how to better time our attacks with our sword skills so that we could take turns dealing attacks and protecting each other while the post-motion effect wore off of us. By the end of our hunting session, we had our timing down pat to such a degree that tackling three boars at a time was no longer a problem.

When we stopped to rest in a safe zone- a designated area where mobs would not spawn, nor would the follow us- Saphira flopped down in the grass, a content smile on her face. "That was awesome," she said. We were surrounded by a ring of stalagmites that marked the exact dimensions of the safe area, all of them differing from one another in height and width.

"Yeah it was," I chuckled as I sat down next to her and cast my gaze out over the golden-lit first floor of Aincrad. "Hard to believe that all of this was made just to be a game… It's so real."

"At the same time, the stuff we've done today…" Rivka said quietly. "We'd never get to do stuff like this in the real world."

"Well, technically we could go boar hunting back home, but we're more likely to end up with permanent damage to our limbs," I said after a quiet moment.

"You just had to spoil it, didn't you?" Rivka rolled her eyes.

"Yup," I smiled.

"That's his job, don't ya know?" Saphira added. I ignored the sally, instead choosing to look back at the Town of Beginnings, which was about a mile behind us.

 _I guess we came out a lot further than I thought,_ I mused quietly. During our hunt, we had backtracked several times and crisscrossed the landscape multiple times while trying to find new targets to farm while avoiding other players. Not out of a particular desire to avoid interacting with them, but as a courtesy- trying to cut in on another player's hunt was a gross breach of rules that could easily end with harsh words and a duel.

"Guess we should head back to town, huh?" Rivka said. "We'll probably have to log off soon anyways."

"Yeah, probably," I sighed. Then a thought struck me that left a frown on my face. "What time is it?"

"Top right of our- whoa now!" Saphira's eyes widened considerably.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I focused on the time that would be displayed in the upper-right corner of my vision.

Even as I read the numbers displayed, Saphira answered, "It's almost half-past five!" And indeed, the numbers read '17:27'.

"And Mom hasn't unplugged us?!" I nearly yelped.

"Don't you guys have a two-hour limit on games?" Rivka asked.

"Maybe Mom's not home yet?" Saphira wondered. "Dad doesn't mind as much, but…"

"I thought she was going to get groceries, but I'd have thought she would be done with that by now," I frowned. "Or maybe she and Dad went out to dinner?"

"At five in the afternoon?" Saphira said with a raised eyebrow.

"Good point, but regardless, we should get off before we get yelled at," I said nervously. "Or worse, get our privileges revoked."

"But what about the thing you promised me?" Saphira pretended to pout.

"Shiny necklace now and get out the game taken away, or have me make good on my word later, when we don't have to sneak on here while Mom's out of the house?" I said flatly.

"Good point," Saphira conceded. Turning to Rivka, she said, "Sorry to cut out like this."

"It's cool, I should probably get off too," she shrugged. "This was a lot of fun."

"Yeah," I grinned as I swiped open my menu. "Let's do it again, soon."

"For sure," Rivka nodded, her long brown tresses flowing in a breeze that swept in from the west. It would have been the perfect scene to the end the first chapter of our story in Sword Art Online.

* * *

Unfortunately, the opening scene was far from over.

"Uh… Rivka?" Saphira said as she stared at her menu. "How do we log out?"

"Very funny," Rivka rolled her eyes as she opened her own menu. "Dad said it would be… huh?"

"What's up?" I asked as I let my menu close while Rivka frowned at her holographic options. "Having technical difficulties?"

"Yeah…" she muttered. "The logout button should be right under the general options and help tabs, but it's not here."

"What?" I said, a bit of worry beginning to worm it way into my stomach. I swiped open my menu again, my eyes quickly scanning the options. But to my surprise, there was no logout tab, just as the others had said. Where the function should have been, there was a simple, blank, white slate. "Oh… This can't be good."

"Is there some other way to get out of here?" Saphira asked Rivka, who shook her head in the negative motion.

"We can't take the helmet off ourselves since the rig blocks all of our motor functions while we're diving," she said.

"So we have to just wait for someone to pull it off of us?" I asked, some relief beginning to sweep over me.

"Yeah, but people IRL are gonna riot if we can't get out of here," Rivka said as she let her menu close. "This could end up being a real problem for people that live alone… I mean, bugs are common in MMO's, especially when they first launch, but this…" She didn't finish- there was no need to. If people couldn't log out of a full-dive environment, it could cause serious problems for Argus, and by extension, Rivka's father as a shareholder in the company.

"Don't worry," Saphira said encouragingly as she too, let her menu close. "I'm sure this will be a quick fix. If worst comes to worst, the admins can just do a forced logout and fix the problem."

"True, but Mom's still not gonna like this," I said as I put my face in my hand. "She probably won't even believe us…"

"Hey, at this point, I'll be relieved when they get us out of here," Saphira said as she shivered a bit. "This world is awesome all right, but I don't like the idea of being trapped in it."

"Ditto," I agreed. "But like you said, we should be out of here soon enough."

"Yeah," my sister nodded. But something in her expression told me that something was bothering her. If I was being honest, something about the whole scenario wasn't adding up that was starting to bother me, too.

The sound of a bell gonging in the distance caused us all to nearly jump out of our skins. Again, for a reason that I couldn't fathom, the sound was putting me on edge. Almost subconsciously, my eyes focused on the clock in the corner of my vision once again. As I read the digits '17:30', I wondered to myself, _Since when does a bell go off at the half-hour mark?_

The girls yelped in surprise as we were suddenly enveloped in a pale blue light and we had disturbing sensation of the ground falling away beneath our feet. For a moment, we felt only the sensation of weightlessness, heard the sound of a rushing wind, and saw the blue light of a chemical flame.

When we could see again, I was relieved to see that my sister and Rivka were still within arm's reach. What I was surprised to see, however, was that our surroundings had changed drastically. Instead of the open fields of floor one, we were surrounded by walls on all sides that enclosed in a massive circle with a monument in the middle.

"What the crap?!" I almost shouted. We were back in the starting area at the Town of Beginnings. "How'd this happen?"

"Someone forced a teleport," a new voice said to my right. I turned to see two young men, one of them tall with a handsome face, grayish-brown eyes and black hair just a bit shorter than mine. Something about his voice struck a chord in my memory, but I couldn't place it at the moment- my mind was still trying to comprehend what was going on around me.

His companion, a slightly shorter, lanky fellow with long red hair held back by an ugly red-and-yellow bandana, looked around with fearful curiosity as he said, "Looks like it's happening to everyone."

He was right. As we looked around the massive plaza, more and more flashes of light heralded the arrival of even more players. All this while, the bell from before was still sounding, and now I could see that it was the bell that I had noticed upon first entering SAO.

Then the flashes of light stopped, and so did the bell. The worm of apprehension in my belly suddenly turned into a cold stone of fear as I noticed a single, blinking red panel that floated in the sky directly above the epicenter of the plaza. On it was one word: 'WARNING'.

"Now what?" the black-haired young man asked as he looked up, apparently following my gaze.

"I dunno, but I don't like this," I said quietly. Saphira stepped closer to me, hugging my arm for comfort. Rivka also drew a little closer, but she refrained from grabbing onto me in fear.

Suddenly, the panel exploded outwards in a circular pattern, multiplying by the thousands until it had covered the entire plaza in a dome of ominous crimson light. I swallowed once and said, "This doesn't look good."

"It might just be part of the opening ceremony," the man in the bandana said hopefully. Somehow, I doubted that he was right.

Without warning, the panels above us were riddled with some kind of static before a thick liquid began to drip down in from between the cracks. The consistency and color could only be described as being akin to blood, and I began to feel sick to my stomach at the sight. Saphira made a gagging sound, though I doubted that we could actually throw up in SAO. Any food we ate in here only gave an artificial feeling of being full, and not actually supplying us with any kind of nourishment.

"What the hell is that thing?" the man with the bandana gaped. He was sounding a lot less optimistic now, I noticed.

His shock was not unwarranted, however. The 'blood' did not hit the ground, but instead hung suspended in the air by an invisible force before it began to coalesce into a solid form. The outlines of a hood with long, flowing sleeves slowly took shape, golden threads beginning to emerge in a masterfully sewn pattern while white gloves manifested at the ends of the sleeves. However, no legs spawned from the bottom of the form, and no face appeared underneath the cowl to give an identity to the apparition that had appeared before us. Instead there was only a black-purple fog that emanated from the place where the head should have been, giving the figure an even more ominous and oppressive aura.

Players around us began to mutter amongst themselves, some of them asking if this was the game master, others theorizing that this must be a part of the opening ceremony. But I had a feeling that it was neither one of those things. I had spent most of my life developing my sixth sense- the one that alerts you to danger before it actually manifests itself in the physical form of potential harm. And it was going off big time.

"Attention players," a sonorous, almost benevolent, voice echoed from the red hood. "I welcome you… to my world." His words- for the voice was unmistakably male- carried no emotion as he addressed us.

"What's he mean by that?" the youth next to me muttered.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba," the apparition stated. "And as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

"Uh oh," I said blankly. Everyone in the game reacted with shock, some of them even physically recoiling with surprise. There wasn't one of us that didn't know that name- how could we not? Kayaba was the man that had not only invented the world of Sword Art Online, but the very NerveGear rigs that had brought us here. His work as a gamer and a scientist were infamous, making him known around the world for his genius.

"This is… quite an entrance," the red-headed player muttered.

"I'm certain many of you have already noticed an item missing from your menus- the logout button," the game creator continued, ignoring the mutterings of those beneath him as he opened up a massive menu, similar in appearance to our own, but with more options available to him. "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game."

My blood froze in my veins. I know I had no blood in my virtual form, but nonetheless… Terror gripped my very being in that moment.

"I repeat, this is not a defect," Kayaba said. "This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be." He paused, as if to let this sink in for all of us. Yet inevitably, there was some denial amongst us.

"He's kidding, right…?" Rivka whispered. "Dad would've known if something like this…" She couldn't finish.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO," Kayaba said, his tone still emotionless. "And no one from the outside world may attempt to remove the NerveGear rig from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your brain, and end your life."

My body stiffened, and Saphira's grip on my arm became a vice. If I'd had blood in my virtual body, the limb would have turned purple from the force she was applying.

And yet still, the red-headed player was in denial. "Are you listening to this crap, Kirito?" he said as he grinned nervously at his raven-haired friend. "He's nuts, right?"

The other young man, however, had neither the look of fear or denial in his bearing. He looked angry. "He's not kidding," he said in a low voice, just loud enough for us to make out the words over the din of the crowds collective sounds. "The signals in the headgear work just like microwaves. If the safety is disabled, it could fry your brain."

Saphira and I looked over at Rivka for confirmation. She could only nod tightly in response, words apparently failing her for the moment.

"Couldn't someone cut the power?" the redhead asked.

"That won't work, Klein" Kirito shook his head. "The NerveGear's got an internal battery."

His friend ground his teeth in frustration before he half-shouted, "This is crazy! It's totally crazy!"

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of several players attempted to remove their NerveGears- an unfortunate decision to say the least," Kayaba announced. The echoing words brought our attention away from Kirito and back to the imposing figure hovering above us.

 _No…_ I thought with horror.

"As a result, the game now has two-hundred-thirteen less players than when it started," the red-cloaked game master continued. "They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"Over two hundred…?" I said hoarsely.

"No way…" Kirito said, his voice finally bearing a hint of fear.

"As you can see, media has round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths," Kayaba said as multiple panels displayed at several different angles opened up and hovered around his body, showing what appeared to be reporters and news anchors, all of them confirming what he had just said. "At this point, it's safe to say that the chances of a NerveGear being removed are minimal, at best. I hope that this brings you some comfort as you try to clear the game."

 _Comfort?!_ I nearly shouted aloud. _This sycophant is telling us that we're trapped in here, and he has the gall to talk about comfort?!_

"Clear the game?" a small voice said. I looked down at Saphira as she asked, "What does he mean…?" Her question froze my fearful anger in its tracks, forcing me to re-examine his words. But before I could think on it for too long, our jailer spoke again

"It's important you remember the following," Kayaba said. "There is no longer any way to revive someone. If your health points hit zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system." As I checked my breath by habit, remembering everything that he had already said, I had a pretty good guess at what he would say next.

"And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

 _Knew it_ , I thought as my shoulders sagged. _We are so screwed._ Saphira let out a small squeak, and she looked like she might pass out. Rivka didn't look much better, and even Kirito seemed terrified at this news. This time, there was no mutterings of protest from the people assembled- only a silence born from stark terror.

"There is only one way for a player to escape now," Kayaba said. "You must clear the game." He made a motion on his menu, and suddenly, we were all looking at a massive hologram of Aincrad in its entirety. "Right now, you're gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. Defeat the boss in the floor's dungeon, and you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor one hundred, and you will have cleared Sword Art Online."

"Defeat all one hundred floors?!" Klein exclaimed. "That's friggin' impossible! Not even the beta testers made it that high!"

"Beat an MMO?!" I added, my anger beginning to boil again. "Seriously?!" I threw my hands up in disgust as I added, "Who's ever heard of someone beating World of Warcraft?!"

My protests went unnoticed, however. Kayaba went on to say, "Lastly, I have placed a little present in the item inventory of every player. Please- have a look." The words were phrased as a request, but something told me that we didn't really have a choice in the matter- much like the rest of the mess we had found ourselves in.

So we all complied, opening our menus to see that there was indeed an item that had not been there before. Upon summoning it to my hand, I was almost disappointed to see that it was a simple mirror. After everything else that had happened that day, I was expecting something a little more… grandiose.

As I stared at the reflection of my carefully constructed virtual face, I heard Klein shout in surprise. Snapping my gaze over to him, I was suddenly blinded by a flash of pale blue light. _Another teleport?!_ I thought in a panic before I realized that my feet were still planted firmly on the ground. And when the glow vanished, I was standing right where I had been before the light had consumed me.

"What was that?" I wondered aloud.

"Umm… Bro?" Saphira said as she poked my shoulder.

"What is- holy mother of all dragons, what happened to you?!" My cry of surprise was drawn out by the sight of Victoria standing in front of me. Not Saphira, the adventuring gamer, but my little sister and closest friend. Her smaller oval face, soft brown eyes and hair, the cute little nose that I pinched whenever I wanted to give her a hard time… The world of SAO had recreated her real body almost perfectly, save for the fact that there were absolutely no flaws in her skin. The only thing that remained unchanged prior to the light was the clothes she had equipped, though they had shrunk a bit to fit her smaller frame.

"Looks like it happened to all of us," Rivka said, though when I looked over my shoulder to see her, she too had regained her earthly form. Struck by a thought, I looked down at the mirror which was still in my hands to see my real face staring back at me, surprise etched into the features I saw. The thick eyebrows and hazel eyes topped by thick brown hair were almost exactly like my own, but again, it all seemed a little too… smooth. My mirror fell from my hands, shattering like the pigs I had slain earlier that day before vanishing altogether.

Without even asking, I knew why Kayaba had done this. Stripping away our virtual faces was the final piece in forcing us to accept that this was our new reality. For how could one escape their own face and form without the armor of the virtual world?

This time, instead of pressing his monologue, Kayaba seemed content to give us time to accept what was going on, for he remained silent for some time. The players below him, however, were louder than ever.

Looking around, I saw that the male-to-female ratio had shifted drastically, with nine out of ten players being male, and the minority being female. Most of them were now, in a word, unattractive. _Well, I guess it's true what they say about compensating_ , I thought as I looked over to the two young men I had been talking to, half-expecting them to be fat, beady-eyed nerds.

Instead, I was more than a little shocked when I found myself looking at another familiar face. Standing a few inches shorter than me, with black hair, obsidian gray eyes, a thin frame, and a boyish face, was Kazuto Kirigaya- the older brother of Suguha, whom I had just spoken to just before diving into this death trap.

"Kirig-" I began, but he held up a hand to silence me, before I spoke the taboo that was his real name. "Oh, right," I apologized. "Sorry, uh…" His virtual name escaped me at the time, though I knew I'd just heard it.

"Kirito," he reminded me.

"Right," I said, looking him up and down, once again amazed by the level of detail that the game had managed to recreate of a real body. "Mataras," I added by way of introduction. I used my thumb to indicate my sister and my friend respectively as I said, "Saphira and Rivka."

"Got it," he nodded as he looked over my shoulder to get a better look at my companions.

While he did, I looked over at his friend, wondering if it was someone else from school that I might know. It wasn't, but I was surprised at the fact that his companion wasn't ugly like I had expected, but rather plain-looking with a scruffy beard and shaggy red hair that matched his original virtual body's, though the length was greatly reduced. For some reason, the look suited him better than the face he had chosen to wear for the game.

"Am I the only one asking how this is happening?!" Klein wailed.

"The scan," Kirito replied. "There's a high-density scanner built into the NerveGear, so it can see what our faces look like." A thoughtful frown creased his now-younger face as he said, "But how's it know our height and body type?"

"The calibration process," I answered him, drawing the full attention of both of them. "Remember how when you first put on the NerveGear it tells you to touch your body all over?" I patted my arms to demonstrate, and recognition lit up Kirito's eyes.

"Oh yeah," he nodded. "That's how it got our physical data…"

Klein seemed less concerned with how everything was happening for the moment, and more focused on why, something I could empathize with. "Why?" he asked frantically as he put his hand on his head as if suffering from a headache. "What's the point? Why would anyone do this to us?!"

"Maybe he'll tell us," Saphira said as she pointed a shaking finger at the avatar of Kayaba, which was beginning to stir again.

I put an arm around her shoulder to try and give her a sense of comfort that I was definitely lacking at the moment. There wasn't much else I could do, but it seemed to settle her nerves a bit.

As if he had heard us, Kayaba suddenly said, "Right now you're probably wondering: why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, creator of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this?" He paused as if gathering his thoughts before he added, "Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. I wanted to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal."

"Kayaba…" the restrained growl came from Kirito, but it may as well have come from my own mouth.

 _He wants control over this world, as though our lives our nothing but his pieces to shift as he sees fit?!_ I thought, my fear burning away in the wake of my outrage. I looked over to see the terrified faces of Reiko and Victoria, and I tightened my right fist, the one that wasn't comforting my kid little sister. _I won't stand for this- not if it means that these two have to live in fear of him,_ I thought as I shot my most vicious glare at the scepter looming over us. _I'll tear down this game from the inside if that's what it takes to get them home_.

"This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official start of Sword Art Online," Kayaba said, his announcement complete. "Players… I wish you the best of luck." And with his final, echoing words resounding through the plaza, his body began to sag and collapse in on itself while dissolving into dark smoke that drifted back up the cracks that he had originally come through.

The instant that the last of his dissolving body was gone, the crimson dome above us blinked out of existence, leaving only the unobstructed view of the second floor's underbelly above us. And there was silence. A silence so loud that no one seemed to be alive in its oppressive vacuum. No one moved. Hardly anyone dared to breathe.

But my thoughts roared like a tidal wave of rage. _So help me…_ I thought as my teeth ground together. _If it was just me… I would endure. But to have_ them _suffer the same fate…_ My eyes wandered once again to rest on my sister and my friend, both of them still pale and mouths open in shock. _Kayaba had better suffer for putting them through this,_ I snarled silently.

An image of my parents standing over our sleeping forms back home flashed through my mind in that moment. My mother was barely holding it together, and my father was doing his best not to show how scared he was for us, too. He was being strong for her as best he could, like a man should be.

That image, that premonition… It was the spark that lit the flame for me.

 _I'll get Victoria home to them,_ I vowed. _I won't let them despair over both of our dead bodies… No parent should ever have to bury their child._

No sooner than I had finished the thought than did the sound of shattering glass destroy the silence, followed by a piercing scream that was quickly followed by a collective roar of terror, confusion, and desperation from the crowd. People all around began to scream at the sky, begging to be released from our prison, others falling to the ground from the sheer trauma of our predicament.

For this was our reality now: live by the sword, or die by the will of the game.

 _I choose to live_ , I thought as I looked over at Kirito, who returned my gaze with a silent nod. Grabbing Rivka's arm with my free hand, I pulled both her and Saphira along as my classmate did the same with Klein, leading the way out of the panicking crowd and into the streets surrounding the plaza. I followed him without hesitation- since Kirito had been a beta tester for SAO, his knowledge of the game's mechanics and maps would be invaluable in protecting the girls, so it was imperative that I stayed close to him.

* * *

The girls offered no resistance as they stumbled along behind us with blank looks of fear still plastered on their faces. At least they hadn't erupted into a full-blown panic like most of the people back at the plaza, I thought as Kirito sped into a side alley between two NPC shops, where he finally stopped running and turned to face us.

"Okay guys, this is how I see things," he said as he swiped open his menu and began entering commands that I assumed involved his map. I could only guess since I couldn't see his map unless he let me, but what he said next supported my theory. "The only way we're gonna survive in this world is by making ourselves as strong as possible. Pretty soon the fields around the Town of Beginnings are going to be swept clean, so our only chance to get ahead on rare quests and better hunting spots is to stay ahead of the crowd. Since I was in the beta, I know how to reach the next town safely, even at level one."

"You'll let us go with you?" I asked him hopefully.

"I could use some teammates," he nodded. "I know you do a lot of karate, so you'll pick up on the combat system faster than most people will. And I won't leave behind your sister or your friend." He glanced at Saphira and Rivka for a second before he added, "It's not gonna be easy, but if you guys are willing to push yourselves, we can make it."

"I'm game," I said as I cracked my knuckles. The sounds came from my hands as they should have, but strangely, the actual sensation of my joints popping did not register.

Before I could think on it too much, Saphira surprised me by saying, "I'll help however I can." I looked down at her, surprised to see that some color had returned to her face, and her eyes were not blank as they had been moments ago.

"Are you sure you want to fight beside us?" I asked her cautiously. "I was thinking-"

"What, that I'd follow you from town to town and stay inside where it's safe?" she asked me with some heat. "Forget it. Wherever you going, I'm going, too. I'm not gonna just watch you go off every day and risk your life trying to beat this game! I'm gonna do my best to make sure you succeed- and don't bother denying that you wanted to be the one that gets to the top. I know that look on your face."

"Which one?" I asked her, still surprised at her sudden firecracker attitude.

"The one that you get on your face whenever you're about to spar," she replied. "The one that says that you're gonna take your enemy down, even if it means you go down with 'em. News flash, buddy: I couldn't handle it if you went down!" Tears began to pool in her eyes as she started to shout at me.

I understood, then. While she may not have the same burning anger that had awoken in my heart, she still wanted to protect her family, just like I did. _And who am I to deny her that?_ I thought as I pulled her close.

"All right," I said quietly. "But we do as Kirito says, got it? I couldn't take it if something happened to you, either. I need you to stay safe, just like you need me to survive, got it?"

"Got it," she sniffled as she buried her head in the crook of my shoulder.

I looked over at Rivka, who was still looking like she had just come out of a warzone. I softened my gaze as best I could before saying, "If you want to stay where it's safe, I-"

"Don't even start with me, Mataras," she said quickly, her eyes quickly narrowing, despite her pale face. "I'm scared to death, yeah. But if you think I'm letting you and your sister go out there alone when I can help, then you're-"

"Are you gonna start insulting me again, or are you gonna let Kirito talk so we can figure out our next move?" I said as I jerked my head over at the younger boy, who looked like he was losing patience. Despite the rebuke, I was glad that she was trying to recapture some of our old chemistry, despite our current circumstances.

"Right, sorry," Rivka said as she bowed slightly to the former beta tester.

"It's okay, but time is crucial right now," he said. "So if you're all down, let's get going."

"Actually…" Klein started to say, catching us all by surprise. "I appreciate the offer, Kirito, but… Remember those friends I told you about?" I didn't understand what was happening, but Kirito nodded in affirmation. Klein continued on to say, "We stood in line for three days to buy this game… And they're still back at the plaza somewhere. I can't just bail on 'em." His face fell.

I looked over at Kirito, who looked like he was having a hard time figuring out what to say. In a way, I understood his plight. Helping us out, people that he knew IRL, was one thing. But to put his life on the line full-time for a bunch of strangers that could end up being complete hindrances? That was another matter.

"Guess I'll be seeing you guys, then," Klein said with a wry grin, surprising us all again.

"Huh?" Kirito asked with a cocked head.

"Can't ask a guy I just met to risk his neck for a bunch of strangers, can I?" he said easily, his bearing relaxing quite a bit. "I figure you all know each other IRL or somethin', and it's the same for me and the guys back there. You guys take care of each other, and I'll do the same for my friends, 'kay? Don't sweat it." His face showed nothing but sincerity and well wishes for us.

 _This man is one brave soul_ , I thought with admiration. _People would kill to have the info that Kirigaya's got, and he's willing to give up on it just like that?_ I didn't know anything about Klein then, but my first impression of the man was an impressive one.

When Kirito failed to comment, Klein added, "Seriously man, everything you taught me is gonna be a big help. I was a guild master in the last MMO I played, so that and my time with you has got me set to go. Get your butts to the next village and message me when you're safe, all right?"

"Okay…" Kirito said somberly as he turned around. "We will. Message me if you're ever in a jam, okay?" And he began to walk away, his steps heavy as we reluctantly followed him, waving awkward good-byes to the friendly man with the ugly bandana.

"Wait a sec, Kirito!" Klein said, causing us all to pause and turn around. He flashed us all one last big smile before he said, "You look better like this, man. Way cooler than your avatar."

Kirito finally found the strength to smile as he replied, "Yeah, and that scruffy face fits you ten times better, too." Then he turned on his heels and resumed walking away.

Saphira managed to flash Klein a smile and a more enthusiastic wave of farewell before we also turned around to follow Kirito.

* * *

As soon as we managed to reach another one of the main streets, Kirito threw us all one last glance over his shoulder before saying, "From here, we're gonna run. And we won't be stopping for a while, got it?"

The three of us gave him one nod in response. We were committed to our path now, and there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

"Let's go," I said. "We got people waiting for us on the other side- and so do you." The memory of my conversation with Suguha earlier that afternoon flickered in my mind, prompting my words to my comrade.

"Yeah," he said quietly. Then his shoulders straightened, and he leaned forward just a bit before taking off at a run, the three of us right on his heels. Fear was in my heart as we ran. I had come into this world to enjoy an adventure that protected me from the perils of the real world. Instead, it seemed that I would have to stare down death on a daily basis, and that thought would be enough to frighten any sane human being.

But even more prevalent than my fear was the anger that burned in my soul and the instinct to protect my family, driving me onward, urging me to conquer my fear of death so that I might one day exact revenge on the system that had trapped us, and the man that had created it.

Rage fueled my virtual muscles, propelling me to run harder than I ever had before, bringing me shoulder-to-shoulder with Kirito, who bore a grim expression as he ran along the path that would lead us to the next town. _Trap us in here for as long as you want, but we_ will _break out some day, Kayaba,_ I thought as a wolf-type monster spawned on the path before us. _Throw whatever you want at me, but I won't stop until this world is nothing but a memory!_

My sword flew from its sheathe in my hand and glowed as I set it in the position needed for the Horizontal skill. Beside me, Kirito had done the same, his sword glowing a pale blue. In what could almost be described a harmonious sync, we landed our attacks simultaneously on the beast, carving red marks into its body, and rending it into thousands of shattered fragments.

* * *

 **Sachi: Huh. Never would've figured you for a poet.**

 **Mataras: Yep. Believe it or not, that's where I got my start- dabbling in poetry.**

 **Kirito: I'm more surprised at seeing so... normal.**

 **Mataras: ...Care to elaborate?**

 **Kirito: I mean, you're still you, just... umm...**

 **Mataras: Not angry? Trying to fight everything? Mellow? Very much not the Red Swordsman?**

 **Kirito: Eh...**

 **Mataras: I got more.**

 **Kirito: No, no. We're good.**

 **Asuna: Interesting as this is, I think some people might be a little confused with the time jump between last chapter and this one. Care to elaborate?**

 **Mataras: Of course. The prologue is based on the format of the light novel of Sword Art Online, where we see our favorite Black Swordsman fighting in the dungeon of floor 74, afterwards reminiscing about the first day of the game as he walks home.**

 **Kirito: Oh, so are we gonna go back to that point in time next chapter?**

 **Mataras: No. We'll be following my narrative throughout the two years that occurred in the space between before we get back to that point. So in summation, we won't be hopping back and forth between points in time, so to speak.**

 **Victoria: Sweet- never did like stories that overuse time jumps.**

 **Yui: This is super-cool! You're gonna be an active part of the story from now on, huh?**

 **Victoria: That's right, kiddo! And I'm pretty excited about it- and I kinda have a feeling that a lot of the readers are, too.**

 **Asuna: I don't blame 'em. I mean, we've seen you in flashbacks and show up as a ghost, but we've never seen you and Mataras actually spending any length of time together. I know I'm looking forward to the new dynamic.**

 **Mataras: Hehe. Glad to see everyone getting along so well. In any case, I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day (even if you don't celebrate it, I hope your day was good)! I'll bid you adieu- right after this author's note down below.**

 **Kirito: Next time- The Art of Adaptation.**

 **Asuna: Closing song- This is War by Thirty Seconds to Mars.**

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so I've been hinting at a new project for some time, and I think it's high time that you all found out what exactly it is that I've got in store for you all. So here it is...**

 **January 1, 2017 will be the official launch of my newest story, Legacy of Korra!**

 **I loved Avatar The Last Airbender as a kid, and when I found out that there was going to be a new show centering around his successor, I was thrilled beyond measure. The first season was everything I hoped it to be- appropriate references to the Gaang, brand-new characters, a brilliant new villain, and of course, seeing an Avatar that was so unlike Aang, yet that wanted to be like him at the same time. It was awesome.**

 **Then... Season two happened. To sum it up, that thing was a train wreck, with the only redeeming qualities being the story of the original Avatar, wan, and getting to see Iroh again. But other than that, I was incredibly disappointed. Season three was definitely better, but it still wasn't the quality of work that we have seen from the creators of Avatar. The villains were cool, the air nomads returning was fantastic, and of course... Lord Zuko is going to be the coolest firebending prince around. No one will ever take that from him.**

 **Season four... I'm not even going to touch that thing in any detail. The only, and I do mean the _only_ redeeming factor in that season was seeing old Toph. That's it.**

 **So why am I going on and on about this? I've decided to do what I do best on this website and revamp the Legend of Korra into something that I think it should have been from the very beginning. Me and a team of three other people are putting our heads together for this, and what we've got in store is going to be amazing.**

 **Some tidbits for you to get you interested are...**

 **Starring for the first time will be an original character by the name of Gyatso who- in this version of the story- is Tenzin and Pema's eldest child, and set to be Korra's airbending master instead of Aang's youngest son. (Mataras won't be making any appearances in this story whatsoever, and Gyatso is a totally different kettle of fish to our favorite Red Swordsman, so if you're interested to see the other kinds of people I can create, there's another reason for you to check it out).**

 **Later down the line, we'll get to see what happened to Zuko's kid sister (Kiyi, not Azula) after she went to the Fire Nation with the rest of her family.**

 **And lastly, we'll see some faces that while in the original version were almost completely shoved aside and then forgotten, will be playing bigger roles that weave into a tapestry bigger than I could have imagined on my own.**

 **I hope that I have succeeded in at least piquing your interest enough to give the story the once-over when it is released on New Year's. I look forward to hearing what many of you have to say about this brand-new venture of mine.**

 **I want all of you to know how very thankful I am to have your support, and will see all of you again for Christmas. I bid you well wishes until then.**

 **The Red Swordsman, Mataras**


	3. The Art of Adaptation

**A/N: Merry Christmas to everyone- I hope that you're not too tired of unwrapping gifts, because I've got one more present just for you! Introducing a chapter of my very own design, with events not featured in the anime or light novels! (I will note that one of the events that occurs in this chapter is briefly mentioned by the characters, but was never covered in any detail)**

 **We will also begin to see some familiar faces that were introduced later in the anime, and some of them may not be what you're expecting!**

 **Time to rejoin the adventures of Mataras, Rivka, Saphira, and Kirito!**

 **OP song: In My World (Cover by Nathan Sharp)**

 **P.S. Thank my future wife for the new cover art, featuring Michael the Schoolboy, Mataras the Survivor, and the one and only Red Swordsman of Aincrad!**

* * *

 _The clock has begun to tick forward  
The swords have been raised  
Our path will be hard  
But we will not be fazed_

* * *

The Art of Adaptation

 _My name is Mataras, and I am a swordsman of Aincrad._ This is the reality in which I live now. My own birth name didn't even follow me to this prison-world, even if my true appearance managed to make itself known. Many of the skills that I learned in school that were supposed to help prepare me for the bigger challenges of adulthood are next to useless here. It's been a difficult life to adjust to, but it was that or perish in one form or another.

Just two weeks ago, my sister, my best friend, a classmate of mine, and a little less than ten thousand other people were given an ultimatum: fight our way out of the death game Sword Art Online, or stay where it was safe, and remain forever trapped in a virtual world.

My companions and I chose the former option, deciding that if we were to be trapped in this world, it might as well be in a manner that we could take into our own hands. As fortune would have it, we had a near perfect-team for taking on the challenges that this world had to offer.

"Hey!" I shouted over my shoulder as I intercepted a giant black stinger aimed at my shoulder with flick of my gray sword. "How much longer on that chest?!" I was standing in the open plains of floor one in the floating castle Aincrad, backed against a pile of rocks that were just one gathering out of hundreds that I must have seen over the last two weeks.

Except that this one was different from the rest. Hiding in a small alcove that shielded it from casual view was a large, wooden treasure chest.

"I might be done about _five seconds after you quit asking me that!_ " Rivka snapped as she fiddled with the lock on the brown chest. Although most people in SAO that chose to learn the lock-picking skill were dagger-users, Rivka's weapon of choice was a long-handled spear that rested in the grass next to her, just in case she needed to use it.

"Just sayin', a little back-up would be appreciated!" I shot back at my oldest friend as I slashed at the insect-like monster harassing me, a mob called a 'worker wasp' that was about half my size, and capable of poisoning me if its stinger struck my body.

"And what are Kirito and I, chopped liver?!" another female voice grunted just before the owner slashed at her own attacker, an identical creature that was buzzing about, trying to sink its stinger into her body anywhere it could. "Geez, where's a can of Raid when you need it?!" Saphira complained as she failed to score a solid hit.

"At this point, I'd settle for a giant fly swatter!" I said as I positioned my sword like I had been taught. The blade glowed orange, and I let the skill system go to work, allowing it to guide my actions so that my sword slashed through the air so fast that an orange blur of light was left in the wake of my weapon's path. The blow hit the annoying monster square in its oversized abdomen, leaving a huge red gash in its body and depleting most of its health points.

Most. Not all, which might have spelled trouble for me if I didn't know how to exploit a little trick that another player had shown me. Before the mob could recover, or the effect known as 'post-motion paralysis' could freeze me in place, I moved my body seamlessly from the end of one attack form to the beginning of another, and my blade shone with a cyan hue. This attack was 'Horizontal', one of the first sword skills I had learned to use in the floating castle, Aincrad. It wasn't anything special in terms of power, but it was good enough to take out the last of the worker wasps' health points.

My sword moved again, almost faster than my own eye could follow, cutting through the insect like it was a hot knife through butter. This time, the HP gauge above its head drained completely, and it blew apart into little crystals not a second later.

I felt my body stiffen, and I would be stuck in place until the effect wore out. It wouldn't be for any longer than a second or two, but a lot can happen in that time. As I watched, Saphira lit up her blade and slammed her own enemy with a sword skill called the Sharp Nail that rendered its health points depleted, and it simply ceased to be.

Seeing as I had used a chain attack, my paralysis would last longer, but since Saphira executed her skill after me, our conditions wore off simultaneously. Even as we found ourselves able to move again, we both heard someone shout, " _Seya!_ " Turning to looking in the same direction, we were just in time to witness the final member- and unofficial leader- of our little band destroy two of the wasps simultaneously with a skill that made his silver blade glow green.

"What's that one called?" Saphira asked.

"Snake Bite, I think," I replied. "I guess that's one of the Area of Effect moves he was talking about." According to Kirito, sword skills could be divided into two categories in terms of singular engagement. There was the direct, one-on-one attack skills that my sister and I favored. Then there were the moves that could help whittle away at surrounding mobs if you found yourself facing more than one mob at a time, called Area of Effect skills, or AoE for short. However, he did make a point of telling us not to agro more than one enemy at a time, as it could easily prove overwhelming if we weren't properly prepared for them.

"What happened to practicing what you preach?" I muttered as I watched him swipe his sword back and forth a couple of times before sheathing it on his back.

"He _was_ a solo player back in the beta," Saphira reminded me. "If any of us know how to tackle more than one mob at a time on our own, it's him. Besides, it's not like he gets extra EXP for it or anything. We're all in the same party."

She made a good point, I knew. But that didn't stop me from feeling like he was showing off a bit. _Then again, if he would act different anywhere, I suppose it would be here_ , I thought. Back in the real world, Kazuto Kirigaya was a loner that aced the books and spent his free time on the internet. He didn't seem to be the kind to show off or hog the action for himself, but I guess he acted differently here.

As I was thinking this, the boy himself walked up with a slight smile and said, "Nice work today, guys. Saphira, I see you're finally trying out those new sword skills you unlocked."

"Whaddya mean, 'finally?" my sister demanded, pretending to glare at him.

"Uhh, nothing!" he said immediately. "Sorry, I guess it just seems like I unlocked them ages ago, so in my eyes, they're old news… Hehe…" He grinned sheepishly, and my previous envy vanished like mist in the sunlight.

 _Huh_ , I realized. _He wasn't showing off. He was giving us room to practice our skills undisturbed._

"Chill out, I was messing with ya," Saphira said as she flashed him a smile. "Did'ja see anything I should work on in particular?"

"Nothing that practice won't fix," he replied. "Your biggest thing is still working on your speed." Turning to me, he said, "You're picking up on the sword skill's auto-assist even faster than I thought you would. Nice work."

"Thanks," I replied. "When I thought about it, it reminded me of putting together different techniques to make a kata." I was referring to the patterns that we learned in Karate that helped us burn the techniques into our muscle memory and improve our reaction time.

"Whatever works for you," he said. "I did notice that you're getting the hang of not using sword skills right off the bat, though. That's good, so keep practicing that." He was referring to how as we had grown in level, our increased stats allowed us to hit the mobs without activating a sword skill, though such blows did little in the way of damage. Such movements were better for blocking attacks from an enemy and buying time until an opening presented itself for retaliation.

"Anything else we should work on today?" I asked him. Looking out at the sky, I noticed that the sun was beginning to set over the horizon.

"You been practicing your search skill?" he asked me in return.

"How do you think I spotted those wasps?" I grinned back. The 'search' skill was activated by me squinting my eyes slightly, kind of like how I had to wind up for a sword skill before I used it. It enhanced my vision by highlighting enemies in hiding, even zooming in on them if I stayed focused on one for long enough. Kirito said that he had developed his own search skill in the beta to the point where he could see hidden traps, but that was nowhere near its maximum potential, which would elude me for some time.

"Well, it looks like your search skill has found us something pretty," Rivka said as she stood up from her work with a grunt. I noticed that the chest was now open, so she must have managed to crack it.

"Took you long enough," I teased her, which earned me an elbow to the gut from Saphira. It didn't cause physical pain, or even knock the wind out of me since we didn't need to breathe with these bodies, but it still sent a message.

"What'd you find?" my sister asked curiously.

"Check it out," Rivka said as she turned to face us, a one-handed sword lying flat in her hands. It was straight, of average length, and plain-looking, save for the rich blue color of the blade.

"It's definitely pretty, but what's it worth?" Kirito wondered.

"Gimme a sec," Rivka said as she eyed the sword closely before gripping it by the handle and swiping her other hand in a vertical motion over it. This was her 'appraisal' skill we were seeing, and as a treasure hunter/ thief class, it was an important one for her to master. It could tell the difference between a plain old sword and a blade that would last longer without maintenance and add twenty points to your agility as a bonus. Like all other skills, the more one practiced it, the higher the level of object that they could handle.

She waited for a few seconds before she shook her head and said, "Never mind, no good."

"It's useless?" I asked, surprised.

"No, I mean my appraisal skill isn't high enough to tell what kind of stat multipliers it has, or even how much it might be worth," she muttered with disappointment. "All I could get was the name: Ocean Stone."

"Ocean Stone?" Saphira repeated, eyeing the color appreciatively. "Kind of a clunky name, but I got hand it to the developers at Argus- they know how to make a pretty sword."

"Looks usually go a fair amount into indicating the worth of an object in MMO's," Kirito muttered, almost to himself. "And the fact that it's too high-level for Rivka to read means that it's likely a rare drop."

"We _did_ have to fight a bunch of wasps that were guarding it," I pointed out. "I'd hope we get something good out of this business."

"I still wanna get a second opinion on this thing, though," Kirito said. "If it's cool with you guys."

"Who'd you have in mind?" I asked him.

"I recently came back into contact with one of my old hunting partners from the beta," Kirito replied as he turned around to walk back to town. "Name's Argo. She's the best of the best at gathering intel, and knowing her, she'll have already boosted her appraisal skill as much as possible." As he talked, Rivka put the item in her inventory and began walking beside me as we all followed Kirito through the grassy area of floor one.

"She's an info broker?" Saphira asked as she fell into step beside Kirito.

"Yup, and really good at it, too," he nodded. "She overcharges for her services, but I know how to handle her."

"So she's an extortionist," I said flatly.

"Don't make assumptions about people you haven't met," Rivka reprimanded me with a frown that I chose to ignore.

"Well, Mataras isn't far off the mark in saying that, but Argo's intel has never led me wrong," Kirito said. "If we have to pay her for her services, I promise it'll be money well spent."

"Why don't we just have one of us equip the sword to find out what it does?" I asked.

"Because some swords have hidden effects that only an appraisal skill can see," Kirito explained. "I know it doesn't seem like a big deal now, but eventually, the players that choose to become smiths will be able to make better quality weapons than what the NPC's or even most quests can offer. But if at least one of us hasn't developed our appraisal skill, we could end up being duped."

"Why, are player-made objects harder to appraise?" Saphira asked.

"Oh yeah," Kirito nodded immediately. "I tried back in the beta, but I was never able to get mine that high."

"So now you're planning ahead," I mused.

"Hey, that was the point of us coming all the way out here, remember?" Kirito said as he indicated the mostly-empty fields around us. Other than a few mobs in the distance, we four were all alone out here.

He was right, of course. The Town of Beginnings had plenty of living space, but the fields around it could only respawn so fast in terms of monsters to slay- certainly not enough to keep several thousand people going strong. Out here, in the small town on the map that Kirito had led us to via a hidden path with few monsters, we were able to hunt mobs at our leisure.

Not that leisure had been a big part of our time spent in the death game so far. Each day, at seven o' clock, we would all get up, eat a quick breakfast at the inn we were staying at, and then be out in the fields by seven-thirty. We would hunt monsters- a mix of wolves, wasps, and boars- until about one in the afternoon, when we would have a thirty-minute respite for lunch. After that, it was back to 'whack-a-mob', as Saphira put it, until about seven in the evening, which is when the sun would set in the virtual world. We would then head back to the town and spend the next thirty minutes to an hour delivering quest items and/or reports to NPC's to receive our rewards, followed by selling our junk items- such as wolf pelts, wasp stingers, etcetera- for extra cash. After that came dinner, followed by practicing our passive abilities like the search and lock picking skills until we crashed onto our beds at around nine-thirty. Kirito and I shared one room while Saphira and Rivka took another across the hall. Then we woke up the next day, only to start the whole routine over again.

The work was indeed strenuous, but well worth it. All of us had already progressed to level three, and we were flirting with level four at this day's end. With each level gained, we found ourselves becoming stronger and stronger in the ways that we chose. Every time we levelled up, we acquired points- some we could invest into our sword skills, others into our stats. Rivka chose to invest in her agility and health points so that she could dodge most blows thrown at her, as well as survive the ones that did manage to land on her. As a track athlete, Saphira was all about her speed, so she invested her points into her agility and speed stats. So while she might not hit as hard as the next player, she would definitely be able to hit them a lot more than they could hit her, and that was _if_ they could land a hit in return. The biggest drawback to this style was that if- by luck or skill on her opponent's part- she was hit, it would bode very poorly for her health gauge.

When both Kirito and I cautioned her against this, she had grinned impishly and said, "Well, that's why I have you two around- you're guys. You're supposed to make sure the girls don't get hurt, right?"

"That seems incredibly unfair," Kirito had complained.

"And irresponsible," I had added. Still, she insisted that she had confidence in our skills. And to her credit, she had yet to be seriously hurt in combat.

Kirito was a tried-and-true RPG swordsman, choosing to split the majority of his points between his agility and attack stats, which would enable him to hit hard and dodge fast. Of the two, he invested more into his agility, which sharpened his reaction time and would eventually shorten the span for which he would be paralyzed by the post-motion effect.

As for me, I chose a slightly different route. My main focus was my speed stat, with my strength just behind it. When Kirito pointed out that my dodging ability would be reduced because of this, I had told him, "Do you know the average time it takes for someone to punch, one time?"

"Uh…?" he had said, taken aback by my roundabout reply.

To clear his confusion, I elaborated, saying, "It's about a full second, give or take. _My_ average speed is three punches in one second- no exaggeration." Seeing his polite disbelief reflected in his friendly obsidian eyes, I went on to say, "Believe me, that's not even a record. If anything, I want to be even faster than I am.

"Point is, I won't need to dodge if I can waste my opponent before they even finish winding up. Besides, it's not like I'm completely neglecting my other stats," I told him. "This just works for me."

"Okay…" he had said a little uncertainly. "Between you and your sister, I'm not sure which style is more risky."

"Flip a coin for it?" I had chuckled.

Despite our differences in play style- or perhaps _because of_ these differences- we were able to form a lethal fighting unit that crushed any mob in its path. Now if only we could find the first floor boss…

In the two weeks that we had been trapped in SAO, Kirito had been incredibly frustrated to learn that not only was there several differences in the first floor's topography, the main labyrinth's location had changed from the beta entirely. This meant that the majority of quests and field dungeons had changed as well, though the towns seemed to be mostly in the same place as before. It also meant that the floor's main dungeon, where the main boss would lie in wait, had been moved, too. Until we could find and defeat it, we were essentially stuck in the same place as when we started.

"Guess Kayaba wanted to show that even the former beta testers are going to be in the dark about some things," Kirito had muttered after realizing what had happened to the dungeon layouts and locations.

"That, or he just likes screwing with people," I added sourly.

Regardless, the unexpected development had hampered our upward progress considerably. Kirito had thought that he would be able to reach the eighth floor within the first month, but obviously, no such luck.

"You know, I'd have thought that it would be easier to figure out how to get to the main dungeon, seeing as it's inside of that giant pillar," I said as I pointed at said column in the distance. "Kinda hard to miss."

"Well, if that was all it took, what would be the fun in it?" Kirito said with a wry smile. "Something that I'm confident that stayed the same from the beta is that we have to get through the right field dungeon before we get to the main floor labyrinth. In our case, we went to the wrong field area, so we gotta find the right one before we make any more progress."

"Do you think this Argo person will know where to find the right dungeon?" Rivka asked.

"Nah," Kirito shook his head negatively. "If she did, she'd have told me about it. She would have charged for the intel, but she would have said something."

"What makes you so sure?" I asked him curiously. "Sounds like she just likes making a profit."

"Hey, unlike most info brokers, Argo gets most of her intel first-hand," Kirito replied. "She works hard to learn what she does, and with conditions like the death penalty, I'd say she has a right to charge a little extra."

"Ach, good point…" I muttered.

"Since when did you become a miser?" Saphira asked over her shoulder.

"When I learned just how much it is to buy a new piece of armor, not to mention repairing equipment," I answered dryly. "A thousand col just for a set of boots that boosts defense a few points? Gimme a break…"

* * *

We had just finished a quest that required us to turn in thirty wasp stingers in exchange for a new sword when we met her. "Here you go," Kirito said as he turned away from the quest-giver NPC and handed me my new weapon, a bright red, one-handed sword that matched the length of my starting blade.

"The Red Shard," I read aloud as I equipped the new tool. "Thanks, Kirito." According to the stats boosts I was reading, this new sword would be increasing my attack stat by a few points.

"Argo's actually the one that told me about the quest NPC, so you should thank her when you meet her," Kirito said.

"When will that be?" Rivka asked as she finished selling her junk items to a street vendor.

"She's actually going to be meeting us in a few minutes," Kirito replied. "I sent her a message as soon as we got into town, and she happened to be nearby for a side quest of her own."

"Is she also the one that told you how to get the Anneal Blade?" I asked him as I eyed the black-and-gray sword on his back. It was a rare sword that featured a decent boost in the attack stat, even more than the red blade I had just equipped.

"Back in the beta, she helped me get it the first time, and when she found that the same quest had popped up, she let me know right away," Kirito nodded. "Good thing, too. It's a quest that only generates one time, apparently."

"Hey, I had ta sell it to someone that would have the col on hand," a new voice said as a short, hooded figure strode up to us. "Not many people around this game know how to hunt mobs and turn a profit like you, Ki-bou."

"Ki-bou?" I snickered, much to Kirito's discomfort. "Nice nickname, buddy."

"It's not my fault, she just took to calling me that," he muttered. To the figure, he said, "How's business, Argo?"

"Too slow back in the Town of Beginnings, so I decided to come back to where the action is," she grinned as she tilted the hood on her cloak back. This revealed a young face about Saphira's age, with wide almond eyes and short, sandy blond hair. The most interesting feature revealed on her face were six red stripes that she had apparently painted onto her face, three on each cheek that resembled a mouse's whiskers.

"These the pals you been writing me about?" she asked as she looked the girls and I over. "Gotta say, I never thought I'd see the day when you gave up bein' a solo player, Ki-bou."

"Well, I know them IRL, so it's not like I could abandon them," Kirito shrugged. "Lemme introduce you guys. Argo, this is Rivka, our treasure hunter."

"A spear-usin' treasure hunter?" Argo said with a raised eyebrow as she looked at Rivka again. "Gotta say, that's a genuine first for me."

"Nice to meet you too," Rivka said.

"And this is Mataras and Saphira," Kirito said as he gestured to my sister and I in turn. "They both use one-handed swords."

"But the girl's a leftie?" Argo said as she noticed the position of Saphira's sword on her right hip. "Nice. That'll be somethin' other players don't see every day."

"Does that piece of info earn me a favor?" Kirito grinned.

"Not even close, but nice try," Argo smiled back. "Watcha need? You're always good for business, so let's hear it."

"Wait, what was that about a freebie?" I interrupted.

"I don't just charge money, ya dope," Argo smirked at me. "If I like ya, I'll trade intel for intel. But _only_ if I like ya."

"Hmm…" I mused to myself as Kirito began to describe to her the sword that Rivka had found. _Intel for intel, huh? Might come in handy someday…_

"Need an appraisal, eh?" Argo said as she held out her hand expectantly. "Let's see it, then."

"Name your price first, so I can decide if it's worth it," Kirito said as he held up a hand to indicate stillness from Rivka. "I'm not falling for that trick twice."

"You were more fun in the beta," Argo pretended to pout. Then she squared her shoulders and dropped the act, ready to do business. "All right, if this is just an appraisal, I'll do it for free, since I happened to be in the area. But if there's something else…?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, yeah," Kirito said as he set up an exchange between himself and the girl. "I'll pay your minimal fee, two-fifty."

"What for?" she asked, though she accepted the money without hesitation.

"I want to know what the situation is back in the Town of Beginnings," Kirito said. "The only other guy I'm in contact with other than you high-tailed it out of there two days after the game launched, so he hasn't been able to tell me what's been happening either."

"Do I have a competitor for your attention?" Argo teased him.

"No, he's another fighter like me, but he and his friends made a guild," Kirito said with a shake of his head. "None of 'em are info brokers, that's for sure."

"Good to know," Argo nodded as she held out her hand for the sword. This time, Kirito let Rivka hand it over. As she waited for the appraisal skill to kick in, Argo's face grew a little grimmer as she said, "The place is a mess. The riots died down after a couple of days, but things didn't really get any better."

"How could it get worse than it already is?" I asked skeptically. "We're trapped here until we can figure out how to fight our way out. Ipso facto. Case closed. That's a wrap."

"We get it, Mataras," Saphira said to cut me off, while giving me a stern look. When I closed my mouth, she turned to Argo and said, "Please excuse my brother. You were saying?"

"Yeah…" the info broker grimaced. "Well, he's half-right. You forgot the part where death here means death IRL."

"Wait, what?" I asked, suddenly feeling very cold inside at the way she brought up that particular rule. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Unfortunately, a number of players have decided that either death is the only way out of here, or that this is all just a big ruse, and death means we just get logged out to the other side," Argo explained. "Long story short, about seven hundred players have decided to take a swan dive off the edge of the map to escape SAO."

" _Seven hundred?!_ " I repeated in shock. "As in… a seven followed by two zeroes?!"

"Yeah," she nodded grimly. "It ain't pretty. Matter of fact, it's one of the main reasons why I decided to leave that place. Watching people takin' on a 'leaping lemmings' kind of a mentality takes its toll."

Rivka blanched at the stark terminology, so I put an arm around her shoulders to steady her as she took deep breaths to calm herself. I refrained from reminding her that we didn't actually need to breathe, so the action of consciously breathing in and out was not going to physically do anything positive for her. But if the thought was what counted, I wouldn't stop her from trying to calm down that way.

"Are you okay after seeing all of that?" Saphira asked Argo, immediately concerned about the other girl's well-being.

This kind of behavior didn't surprise me in the slightest, but Argo definitely took a moment to respond to the unexpected display of concern from the total stranger in front of her. "Girlie, after being stuck in here, period, I think we're all gonna need a long time before we're okay," Argo shook her head as she lowered the sword to nearly rest in the street. "Thanks for the ask, though."

"Well, if you ever need to talk to someone, just send me a message, okay?" Saphira said as she swiped open her menu and sent a friend invite to Argo, who was immediately taken aback.

"Whoa, what?" she asked as she looked at the other girl in surprise. Apparently in her experience, friend requests were not a common occurrence.

"Kirito said you work alone, but I imagine it must get lonely sometimes, being by yourself all the time, right?" Saphira prodded. "This is just in case you need a friend to talk to."

"A friend?" Argo repeated.

"You seem like you're familiar with Kirito," Saphira smiled at her. "So I don't see any reason why we can't get along."

"O-Okay…" Argo said, hitting the 'accept' button that had popped up in front of her with some hesitation. "I guess that makes sense…"

"Hey, I won't bother you if you need space," my sister said as she smiled a little brighter at the other young girl. "I just wanted you to know that you don't have to be out here alone if you don't want to."

"Thanks, Saphira," Argo replied, smiling a bit in return. "I guess it is nice to know that there are some people in this game that are focused on more than just their own escape." She then held up the blue sword to hand it over to Rivka as she said, "This thing is a solid find, by the way. You can upgrade it up to eight times, like Ki-bou's Anneal Blade, and it already gives you a five-point boost in the AGI stat."

Kirito whistled, impressed. "Nice find, Rivka," he nodded. To Argo, he said, "What's your take? Should we sell it or keep it?"

"I can try and find a buyer for ya if you'd like," his old acquaintance replied. "Lemme know what you decide, either way."

"You're taking off already?" Rivka asked as she took the sword from her.

"Dungeons to see, quests to find, deals to make," Argo grinned as she put her hood back forward to hide most of her face. Turning around, she waved farewell and said, "Later, Ki-bou!"

"Safe travels," he replied as he waved her off, even though she couldn't see him. We waited until she was out of sight before turning to each other and looking down at the sword in Rivka's hand.

"I call dibs," Saphira said quickly.

* * *

"I still can't believe seven hundred people would just kill themselves like that," I muttered as I jabbed at my soup. We were in the tavern at the inn that we were spending the night at for our evening meal.

"According to what Argo says, they don't think that they're killing themselves," Saphira pointed out. "They just think it's the quickest way out of here."

"If that were true, why don't the people that jumped off just log back in?" I countered.

"I'm not saying I agree with them," Saphira said in placating manner. "They're desperate, scared. They're willing to try anything if it means getting out of this death trap."

"So they're just stupid," I scowled. "We were all there at Kayaba's announcement, we all heard the rules. There's no excuses for these people."

"Hearing something and accepting it as truth are two different things," Rivka said before drinking some of her water.

"Truth isn't dependent on or altered by a person's beliefs," I snapped, angry that they would defend such a way of thinking. "We die here, we die IRL. I can't believe people are being so selfish that they would just abandon whoever might be waiting for them on the other side of reality in a petty attempt to escape this prison-world."

"But they think-"

"It doesn't matter what they think!" I said hotly, slamming my palm on the table, startling the others. "If I said that the sky was green, and truly believed that was the case, what would I be labelled as?"

"Crazier than you already are," Rivka said, deadpan.

"Precisely my point," I said, ignoring the verbal jab she had thrown at me. "Kayaba has told us that death here is just as real as back home- in other words, he's shown us that the sky is blue. But these _idiots_ back in the city insist- despite everything being laid out for them in as basic terms as possible- that we won't die."

"They're saying that the sky is green," Saphira finished for me.

"Exactly, and it ticks me off," I snarled. "If this death count keeps climbing like it has been, we're going to be very alone by the time summer rolls around."

"Wait, you don't think that there's still people jumping, do you?" Rivka asked, paling.

"Argo gave no indication that things had slowed down on that front," I said with a dry tone. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the 'leaping lemmings' as she put it, are picking up the pace."

"That's a horrible thing to say!" Saphira glared at me as she raised her voice.

"Maybe, but tell me I'm wrong," I countered, gritting my teeth as I argued back. "Think about it. Argo left because apparently it was that bad. If things were quieting down in that department, she might have stayed where she was. But you saw it yourself- she just wanted to keep moving away from the city back there."

"Someone's a downer," Rivka said just loud enough for me to hear. "Glass is always half-empty with you, isn't it?"

"No, in this case, it's about one-tenth empty," I said sullenly. "More than two hundred people dead in the first day, another seven hundred in the following weeks. And I feel like I'm the only one that's getting angry about it."

"You're not, Brother, but what can we do about it?" Saphira asked, her tone a little more restrained now. "All we can do is focus on our own survival. We can't help everyone- we can barely help ourselves."

"She's right," Rivka added. "I mean, what can we do? It's not like we can keep people from jumping off."

I subsided, forcing my temper down as I forced myself to breathe in and out slowly. Again, I knew I didn't actually need to breathe, but something about the habit helped to settle my agitated nerves. When I had calmed down somewhat, I said, "All right… Since we can't help people back in the city, what's our next move as a group?"

Kirito seemed to be waiting to see if I would explode again, because it was quiet at our table for a few moments before he started to speak again. "Well…" he said hesitantly. "Since the location to the main dungeon can't be reached from this town, we'll need to start moving through the other dungeons and fields on the map. My guess is that it'll be a little while before anyone finds the main dungeon, so until then, we'll focus on taking as many quests and exploring as much as possible."

"So basically what we've been doing?" I asked.

"Yeah, but in a wider range," Kirito admitted. "We've been focusing on grinding for the most part, but now we're gonna focus a little bit more on expanding our map data."

"Any particular reason for that?" Saphira asked.

"Yeah," Kirito nodded. "The more places we've been, the easier it is to get around with teleportation gates that are located at each town."

"Teleportation gates?" I inquired. The term sounded familiar from when I had tried to read up on what the game would feature, but I was having a hard time recalling it at the moment.

"Yeah, remember on the first day when we got teleported back to the main plaza?" Kirito reminded us. "The mini-monument in the middle of the plaza was actually the coordinates used for the teleport. Every town and major city in SAO has a gate that can be used for instant travel if you've visited the location at least once."

"What counts as a visit?" Rivka asked him.

"You just have to be inside the area's safe zone perimeter for a couple of seconds before the map shows that you've visited the place, which in turn unlocks the teleport gate for your use," Kirito explained. "Later on in the game, we'll be getting ahold of teleport crystals, which can instantly warp us to wherever location is available to us."

"Nice," I nodded, filing the information away for later.

"So since we've been to only this town and the Town of Beginnings up until now, we can essentially go from point 'A' to 'B', right?" Saphira summarized.

"Yeah, but we'll be going to another town in between us and the city, so we're better off walking tomorrow and getting some more hunting done along the way," Kirito said. "We're strong enough to handle just about whatever comes at us on this floor on our own, save for a boss battle. Sound good?"

"Works for me," I nodded.

"I'm game," Saphira agreed. "This town doesn't have any good jewelry for sale, anyway."

"We're in a game of life and death, and you want to change locations because there's no local Zales?!" I asked her.

"A girl's gotta have her look," she sniffed. Something about the way that she had responded made me suspect that she was deliberately trying to needle me.

"Sounds like we have more arguing to look forward to on the walk to the next town," Rivka sighed as she finished her meal.

"Not arguing," Saphira said with a grin.

"Debating," I smirked as we bumped fists.

Had we known what was coming the next day, those smiles would have never been worn.

* * *

It all started off as we had planned. We got up at the usual time, had breakfast, geared up, and headed out into the open fields once again. Kirito was in the lead beside me while Saphira and Rivka brought up the rear.

"So what's the name of the place that we're heading to today?" Saphira piped up after we had been walking for about ten minutes in relative silence.

"We just left Horunka," Kirito replied. "So it'll take us about half the day to reach a smaller town called Syca."

"Any quests worth remembering over there?" I asked him.

"No, but I'd rather spend the night there than try to make it to the next place in one straight shot," Kirito replied. "After we hit Syca, we're gonna be passing through a lot of woodland. On the other side of the forest is gonna be some more difficult terrain in terms of both geography and enemies, but our levels are high enough to handle most of them."

"You sure about that?" I asked him carefully, wanting to be sure that he wasn't just overconfident.

"Yeah," he nodded without hesitation. "By tonight we should be level four, and we'll be able to invest more points into our stats, which means we'll be able to take on everything even easier."

"Is level four high enough to take on a field boss?" Rivka asked.

"Not unless we had a full-sized party of six," Kirito shook his head in a negative manner. "Named Monsters- another term the system uses for field bosses- is nowhere near as strong as a floor boss, but it's still not something you take on by yourself, either."

"Stay away from NM's, got it," I muttered. "Any chance of us running into one of those the way that we're going?"

"There wasn't one the last time I played, but things have changed a bit since the beta," Kirito replied after a moment of thought.

"Wait, so you're saying we might run into one of those things today?!" Rivka said.

"It's not any more likely than our other days exploring," Kirito said calmly. "Besides, even if we do run into one, we can just stay outside of its radar so we don't agro it."

"How do we tell if we've found one?" I asked him.

"They usually look like other mobs in the area, but with a different color scheme," Kirito answered. "NM's also tend to be bigger than regular mobs. Not to mention, when you lock onto it with your mob analyzer skill, it'll say that it's a Named Monster."

"And if we can't read the health gauge on it, don't engage it at all costs, right?" Saphira asked.

"Yeah, cos that means it's way out of our league," Kirito nodded. "Probably won't see anything like that until we get through the forest, though."

"Probably?" I asked dryly.

"You have no faith in poor Kirito, do you?" Saphira scolded me. "I think he's done this before, so let's let him lead the way."

"You mean he's been in a death game before and come out alive?" I said, making no attempt to mask the sarcasm in my tone. "I must learn everything!"

"You know what I meant!" Saphira scowled.

"Someone's in rare form today," Rivka said while raising one eyebrow. Since the NerveGear basically made her virtual body do whatever she was thinking- within reason- my favored expression that she had tried to copy back in the real world was now available for her to freely utilize.

"I just want to make sure that we're not taking any unnecessary risks," I said defensively.

"Mataras, I know what I'm doing," Kirito said, still speaking calmly. "We'll get to the next town safe and sound, just wait and see."

I looked at him for a long moment without speaking before I nodded and said, "Right. You're right, Kirito. I'm just a little paranoid when it comes to protecting the girls."

"A little?" Rivka snickered. "That kid that hit Vi- er, Saphira? How long was he in the hospital?"

"Just for a day," I sniffed. "And he deserved every minute of it."

"You broke his ribs," Rivka said.

"I stand by what I said," I grinned slightly.

* * *

The town was becoming visible in the distance when it began.

We had just finished wiping out a group of wolves when Kirito collapsed without warning. No cry of surprise escaped his throat, no dramatic falls, he just went and collapsed like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

"Kirito!" Saphira shrieked as she knelt beside him and felt at his neck for a pulse. "His heart's not beating!"

"Victoria, we don't have heartbeats here!" I reminded her, the panic of the moment causing me to forget that using someone's real name was taboo in Aincrad. "We don't have vitals of any kind!"

"Then how do we tell if he's okay?!" Rivka asked as she too, knelt beside the downed fighter. " _Is_ he gonna be okay?!"

"I don't know!" I said, trying not to panic. "Think, guys! Umm…"

"Do you think…Is he dead?" Rivka asked. "Did they pull the plug on the other side?"

"No, that can't be it," I shook my head, my thoughts still racing, trying to understand what was happening. "Kayaba showed us that the world's media had covered the deaths that resulted from trying to take off the NerveGear, so that can't be it… But what?!" There was something missing here… Something I was forgetting. What was it?!

"Maybe they got too desperate?" Saphira thought aloud, her eyes wide.

"No, he's not dead," I said, suddenly remembering what had been eluding my memory's grasp. "According to Kirito, when someone dies, it looks just like when a mob is destroyed, or an item breaks. If that wasn't the case, we'd have seen about two hundred avatars lying around the Town of Beginnings back on day one since those people died. His body is still here, so I think that we can rule out the possibility that he's dead."

"So, he's unconscious?" Saphira asked, her slower tone reflecting the calm that all of us were beginning to feel now that at least the situation was starting to make sense.

Except that it didn't.

"This still doesn't add up," I muttered as I picked up the unconscious boy and slung him over my shoulder. Off-handedly, I said, "Let's try to get to a safe zone while we figure this out."

"Did he get hit by some kind of condition after we fought those wolves?" Rivka guessed.

"I doubt it," I said as we made our way up a large hill, where a circle of stones marked a safe zone in the field. "He's even got his weapon put away, see?" I shifted him slightly to show that his sword was indeed secure in the sheathe on his back. "If this were a result of a battle, it'd have happened sooner than he could worry about putting it away."

"So what happened, then?" Saphira demanded. "Did his NerveGear short out, maybe?"

"I d-" Rivka's voice suddenly cut out, and she collapsed just like Kirito had a few moments ago.

" _Reiko_!" Both my sister and cried out as we saw our friend rendered unconscious by the same unknown force that had taken down Kirito.

"Reiko, talk to us!" Saphira said as she got down on her knees to shake the other girl by the shoulders.

"No, no, no…" I said, panic beginning to return. "Come on, wake up…"

"She's not responding!" Saphira said, her expression one of great fear. "Brother, what do we do?!"

"If we're caught out here by a mob, it's going to be pretty hard to defend them," I muttered, trying to determine our next course of action. Strategy was usually Kirito's job, but obviously, he was in no shape to give orders at the moment. "Can you carry her up the hill the rest of the way?"

"Yeah," Saphira grunted as she picked up Rivka and put her over her shoulders like I had done with Kirito.

"Let's go," I said as we started running up the hill as fast as our legs would carry us.

"Brother, _what_ is happening?" she panted as she ran.

"Best case scenario, they figured out how to pull us out of the game without killing us, but somehow I doubt it," I replied. "Worst case, the NerveGears are overheating or malfunctioning somehow."

"Are we gonna die, then?" Saphira asked, her voice becoming very small.

I shook my head vigorously in the negative. "Again, I doubt that's the case," I said as we continued to run. "But I'd bet all my col that this is being caused by something on the outside."

"But why?" Saphira frowned. "What do people on the outside gain from knocking us out in here?"

"Wait a sec," I said, a new, desperate thought crossing my mind. "What if they're dropping like this because something happened to the Wi-Fi signals at home? Maybe there's a storm going on."

"But if that were true, shouldn't you and I have dropped, too?" Saphira countered. "We live right next to Kirito, after all."

"Rrgh…" I thought furiously, trying to find a viable explanation for what was going on. "What if…?" My eyes widened as I said, "What if they've been disconnected from the server?"

"Why would that happen?" Saphira asked. "Doesn't that set the NerveGear to kill us?"

"No, it doesn't," I said, the idea beginning to make more and more sense. "Kayaba said that removing the _rig_ would kill us. He said nothing about taking us off of the server."

"Again, why would that happen?" my sister inquired, though she seemed more curious than upset or frightened now.

"Because their bodies are being moved somewhere else," I said, the final piece falling into place. "Of course!"

"What?"

"Most people's homes won't have the means to care for someone in a coma," I said quickly, the safe zone getting close now. "Which means that a lot of people are going to need to be moved to hospitals in order to be kept alive on life support. They'll likely restore their connection to the server once they've been set up in a room or whatever it is that they have in mind."

"You really think that's what they're doing?" Saphira asked hopefully.

"I really hope so," I grimaced. "It makes sense to me, anyways. Beats the alternative if nothing else." I stepped inside the safe zone and set Kirito down on the grass inside it. "In any ca-" My voice died in my throat as I looked back and saw that Saphira was collapsed in the grass, with Rivka's body having landed a few feet to her right.

"Oh no," I gaped. Then it was to the winds with caution as I bolted outside of the safe zone, even as I heard and saw several monsters begin to spawn in the area. "No, not now…" I grabbed Rivka's body up with both arms before running back a few feet and throwing her inside the safe zone to land next to Kirito. "Sorry, old friend," I grimaced as I heard her land.

Then I turned back to see a blue wolf not three feet from Saphira's unconscious body. Time and motion seemed to cease at that moment. The fact that if I went out there now instead of getting to safety while I still could might result in me being in an identical situation to her's failed to occur to me. The fact that there were five wolves and only one of our party still standing meant nothing. I was only aware of my precious little sister, defenseless before the fangs of Sword Art Online.

 _I can't lose her,_ I thought, even as my right hand slashed through the air, accompanied by the sound of bells ringing. _I_ won't _lose my family!_ A pinging sound indicated that a skill had been selected and applied to my avatar.

"Get _away from her_!" I roared, drawing my sword and whirling it in a large circle as I ran at the mob nearest to Saphira. I closed the distance so fast I don't even remember my feet hitting the ground.

The last thing that the mob saw was the blur of a red blade tinted by an orange light.

* * *

I awoke with a start to see the wide eyes of Victoria and my other comrades backed by an afternoon sky. "What happened?" I asked groggily as I sat up.

Saphira threw her arms around me and said, "You're okay- thank God." Kirito and Rivka leaned back with sighs of relief and large smiles. Looking around, I saw that we were all inside the safe zone. Some wolf mobs were pacing back and forth a few dozen yards away, but they appeared to have no interest in us.

"Yeah, I'm all right," I nodded as I returned the embrace, memories of what had happened right before I blacked out beginning to filter back in. "I guess we're all back, huh?"

"Do you have any idea what happened to us?" Rivka asked Kirito. "It's good that we're all alive, but that was pretty scary."

"Actually, Saphira and I think we figured it out after you two were knocked out," I said quickly. I explained to them my theory about the hospitals and our bodies needing life support.

Kirito nodded immediately, the thoughtful expression on his face telling me that he was following my line of thinking perfectly. "Yeah, that does make the most sense," he muttered. "Hopefully that means we don't have any more incidents like this."

"Incident?" I repeated with a scoff. "That wasn't an incident, it was an ordeal, let me tell you. I had to fight five wolves _on my own_ , get you three into the safe zone- not to mention myself- before time ran out!"

"Five wolves?" Kirito asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's… actually pretty impressive. How'd you get it done so fast?"

"Eh?" I asked.

"Well, how long was it before you were disconnected?" Kirito asked me curiously.

"Umm…" I tried to remember, but the moments leading up to the darkness swallowing me were all blurred together from the fear and desperation I had felt. "I dunno- a little less than a minute?"

"You beat five wolf mobs in less than a minute, on your own?" Kirito asked skeptically.

Sensing the doubt in his tone, I challenged him, saying, "Yeah, I did. Check your EXP if you don't believe me. It'll be even closer to level four than before, and since you know how much experience points drop from each mob, do the math. See if I'm lying."

Kirito raised an eyebrow at the challenge in my voice, but he complied with my request. His other eyebrow went up as he noticed that I had spoken the truth in regards to the gained experience points. His wide eyes shot over to meet mine as he asked, "How?"

"How, what?" I replied.

"How'd you wipe 'em out that quick?" he asked eagerly. "I've never seen you move that fast when we've been working together. Have you been holding something back?"

If I'd had sweat glands in this body, they would have kicked into overdrive at that moment. _Oh crap,_ I thought. _I almost forgot he doesn't know. And I still don't want him to know- not yet anyways._

"Well, like I told you," I said as easily as I could manage. "If I can hit them fast and hard enough before they take a swing at me, it'll be safer for me."

The girls noticed that I was feeling under pressure, so they tagged in. "I guess we'd better try to make it over to the next village, right Kirito?" Rivka said as she poked Kirito's shoulder to distract him.

"Huh?" he said, turning to her. "Don't you wanna hear about how he beat the wolves, though?"

"No, I think it's just you," Saphira grinned slightly. "I'm more interested in getting to a safe place to sleep, preferably with a roof over my head."

"And I never really was interested in recounting fights anyways," Rivka added as she got to her feet. "Kinda the same reason I never got into Dragon Ball."

"Hey, if it wasn't for that manga, you and I might've never met," I protested, trying to defend one of my favorite series.

"How would I have ever survived?" Rivka mocked me with a grin as she stepped out of the safe zone with her spear in hand. "C'mon. No sense in staying out here any longer than we have to after the day we've had."

"We?" I muttered under my breath as Kirito and Rivka got to their feet as well. "I did the hard part."

"With a friend like her…" Kirito chuckled as he helped me up.

"She's got it where it counts," I told him.

"Yeah, well, she forgot something kind of important, though…" the raven-haired swordsman said as he bowed to me from the waist, surprising me. "She didn't thank you, so let me say it: thanks for saving our lives, Mataras."

As he straightened himself, I clapped him on the shoulder and said, "I appreciate it, but the way I see things, we're going to be saving each other's necks quite a few times before this whole game is done with. So let's just call it even and keep it that way, all right?"

"Kay, sounds good to me," he smiled. "You're a good friend, Mataras."

"Comes from him being a good Big Brother," Saphira smiled at me as we began to walk through the grassy fields again.

Although he didn't say anything, I noticed that Kirito's face fell a bit at her comment. Again, I remembered that in the real world, he was reclusive, even shutting his own family out of his life. Seemed to me like he was beginning to regret that habit now.

 _Don't worry, Kirito_ , I thought to myself. _I'll do my best to make sure that Kazuto and Suguha Kirigaya have a happy family reunion. It's the least I can do after all your help._

* * *

When we got to Syca, we were mildly surprised to find that there were a few other players that had made their way to the town as well. We had just finished paying for two rooms at the local inn when we encountered a group of six players having dinner in the tavern.

"Hey there!" One of them, a short mace-user with brown hair, spoke in a friendly manner. He looked to be in his early thirties, as did his companions. "Good to see some other people around these parts."

"You guys are players," Rivka said in surprise as she looked at their cursors. "How long have you been out here?"

"Just a couple of days," the man smiled. "We weren't feeling confident enough to leave the Town of Beginnings until the day before last, but we're making progress now. What about you guys?"

 _So the majority of people are still trying to decide whether or not it's worth the risk to come out here,_ I thought to myself. _Sounds like we'll still have no trouble finding good hunting spots_.

"We left the town on the day of the launch," Kirito replied evenly. "We've been holed up in a town called Horunka for the last two weeks, and we hadn't seen anyone else up until now."

"Horunka, huh?" another man asked, this one a swordsman. "Where's that at?"

"To the east of this town, about a half-day's journey," Kirito answered. "We'll trade you map data of the field dungeon next to it if you wouldn't mind sharing some of your info with us."

"Sounds like a square deal to me," the mace-wielder said as he stood up to be face-to-face with Kirito. He extended his hand, saying, "I'm Akira, by the way. These boys behind me are the Holy Dragon Alliance."

"I'm Kirito, and this is Saphira, Mataras, and Rivka," our leader replied as he shook hands with the man.

"You guys already formed a guild?" Saphira asked as they set up the map data exchange.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty convenient," another swordsman said from the table. "We can set up a storage space that everyone has access to, not to mention we can set aside guild funds so we can purchase a base someday."

"For now it's more useful for making armor repairs and the like," the first swordsman added.

"Would you four consider joining?" Akira asked, prompting expressions of surprise from each of us. "The more the merrier, you know?"

Kirito closed the menu as the transaction completed and looked at the rest of us with a question in his eyes. In response, I told him, "You're the party leader. If you think it's a good idea, we won't object."

"Hmm…" he mused, apparently thinking it over for a bit. Then he looked at Akira and said, "We appreciate the offer, but I think we're better off working as a small team. You guys already seem like you're set up pretty well, so we shouldn't interrupt that."

"I assure you, it would be no trouble at all," Akira smiled. "But I can understand. You all seem to trust each other, something that's going to be hard to find in this game. Hold onto that, okay?"

"We will, sir," Saphira smiled as she gave him a short bow of respect.

"Please, call me Akira," he insisted. "And even if you won't join our guild, would you at least like to join us for a meal? We would be glad of the company, and I imagine we both have more intel to share than just map data."

Again, Kirito looked to us for an answer. Rivka was the first to respond this time, saying, "I could do with some food after the day we've had."

"Same here," Saphira agreed.

"I'm hungry, and here looks just as good as the next place," I said.

Turning back to Akira, Kirito said, "Well… I guess a meal together won't hurt anything."

* * *

Despite Kirito's adversity to spending time with strangers, the dinner went over pretty smoothly. Both of our parties exchanged what information we could, though we refrained from mentioning our respective levels while doing so. According to Kirito, it was considered rude to tell others your level unless you were partied together, especially if it turned out that you were the stronger one. It was kind of like bragging, he had said.

Nonetheless, the Holy Dragon Alliance decided to head out the next day to farm where we had been, confident that they could navigate the area with the information Kirito had supplied them with. Their leader was eager to repay the gesture, so he told us about their favored hunting spot, which apparently had a pretty decent respawn rate for mobs.

"Most people wouldn't give out this kind of info for all the col in Aincrad," Kirito said after a lull in the conversation. "Why are you telling us all this?"

"Well, you just left what sounds like a pretty ample hunting spot," Akira shrugged. "Seems only fair that we do the same, you know?"

"Thanks, then," Kirito had mumbled.

"Your pal's not much of a people person, is he?" one of the other guild members sniggered.

"No, but he's one heck of a swordsman and strategist," I replied shortly. I wasn't known for having a great deal of patience for people that made fun of my friends or family.

"Please excuse him," Saphira said as she rolled her eyes at me. "My teammate here doesn't know how to take a joke." Another part of not mentioning real-life details was the fact that Saphira and I kept it mostly hidden that we were siblings.

"I'm right here," I frowned.

"I know you are, that's one of the reasons I said it," she smirked.

"Rrgh…" I gritted my teeth, restraining my temper with some effort. "I just saved your life today- don't I get any slack?"

"Nope," she smiled sweetly at me.

I shot her a glare, muttering just loud enough for her to hear, "Some thanks this is…"

* * *

After dinner, I decided to go for a walk alone through the small town. I wasn't mad, not really, but some breathing space was in order, I thought. _I miss being able to retreat into my room,_ I thought as memories of home swam through the confines of my mind. _I miss coming home to have a break with some TV… I miss practicing my karate…_ I swallowed a lump in my throat as I thought, _I miss my mom and dad._ My eyes stung for a second before my vision blurred and I had to blink away a few tears.

"Sucks being stuck here, doesn't it?" a new voice said, startling me into whipping out my sword and slash it through the air to point at the speaker, who was just a few feet away.

The stranger immediately stopped walking forward and put his hands up to show that he did not have a weapon in hand. He was a plain-looking individual of average height, with dark hair and eyes, a pale complexion, and a dagger at his waist. Based on his looks, I guessed that he was in his mid to late twenties. "Chill out, man," he said calmly. "I'm not going to hurt you. Besides, even if I wanted to, we're in a safe zone- not like I can use a weapon here anyways."

He was right, I realized as I lowered my sword slowly. "Sorry," I said in a low tone. "You just startled me."

"You must be one paranoid sucker if your first response is to wave a sword at a guy just walking up to say hi," he said dryly.

"We live in a world where one wrong move sends you to the afterlife," I tossed back. "Anyone that isn't careful is a fool."

"A wise policy, actually," the stranger nodded. "Still, do you plan on leaving that thing out? I'm not a mob, ya know." He indicated my sword with a raised eyebrow.

I whirled my blade in a circle before sheathing it on my back, though I didn't take my eyes off of him. "There, better?" I asked flatly.

"Yeah, thanks for asking," he replied in an equally dry tone. "You got a name, kid?"

"Mataras," I answered. "You?"

"Name's PoH," he replied. The way he pronounced it sounded the word 'pooh', so I raised an eyebrow while the corners of my mouth twitched upwards despite myself. He must have seen my reaction, so he explained, "And no, not like that yellow bear, it's an acronym. Spelled P-O-H."

"Then I'm calling you Po," I replied. "Because unless you want me to start cracking up every time I say your name, I _cannot_ call you that."

"Fine, whatever," he rolled his eyes. "Be a child about it."

"I am a child," I smirked as I gestured to myself, indicating my youthful face. "Can't you tell?"

"Well, you're a smart aleck if nothing else," he muttered. "I guess some things even another world entirely can't change."

"Watch it, creep," I growled. "I'm not the one that was doing the stalking."

"That's a bit harsh," PoH frowned. "I was just out here to get some fresh air."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, dropping some of my hostility in favor of curiosity. "Your friends getting under your skin, too?"

"Nah, just bugged with my lack of progress," the man shrugged. "I'm solo, but this town is as far as I've made it on my own."

"Have you considered joining a party, or even a guild?" I suggested.

"I thought about it, but no one seems to be taking this whole thing seriously enough for my taste," he said as he made slightly disgusted face. "Most of these players are just clowns that are either in hysterics or too scared to make a real move into the wilds."

"Hmph," I muttered. I wasn't going to admit it out loud, but his thoughts were very similar to mine on the subject of the current population of Aincrad. "Well, there's about nine thousand people in here," I said in a lowered voice. "I'm sure at least one other person will share in your mindset."

"Heh, true," PoH smirked. "You seem like an interesting enough individual. I'd ask if you'd like to try hunting with me tomorrow, but it sounds like you already have a group that you're a part of. And since I'm not interested in being seen as an interloper, so I guess I'll be seeing you, kid."

"Just don't sneak up on me next time you want to say hello," I told him. "PoH, was it?"

"Yeah," he nodded as he walked past me, hands in his pockets. "See you around… Mataras."

 _Weird guy_ , I thought as I watched him go. _If that was supposed to be small talk, he's got about as far to go on his people skills as Kirito… Save that he can actually hold a conversation without getting tongue-tied._

* * *

I went back to the inn at about ten o' clock that night, eager to get some sleep. The others were sure to be in bed, since our usual self-imposed bedtime was half-past nine. So imagine my surprise when I went into my room to find the lights on and Saphira sitting on Kirito's bed, scrolling through her menu. My roommate was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Bro," she said as she closed the hologram and shifted to look at me directly. "You doing okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess…" I stuttered, still surprised to see her in my room. "What are you doing in here? I thought you-"

"Michael," she said firmly. "Spill it."

The fact that she had used my real name and the force of her tone caused me to sit down on my bed. "I miss our home, Victoria," I said simply. "I miss Mom and Dad… My karate classes… Even school."

Saphira nodded sympathetically before saying, "I know how you feel." She got up and sat beside me as she said, "I know every parent tells their kids that they take them for granted, but I never really thought about that until now." She paused briefly as she cracked a pained smile. "I mean, Mom and Dad have always been there to help us after we make a mess of things- or even to keep us from screwing up. And… I never really appreciated that until now…" She sniffled, obviously fighting back tears, but to no avail.

I put my arm around her, once again trying to offer a sense of security that I knew nothing of at the moment. "We may be on our own," I said quietly. "But I promise that I'll do my best to catch you whenever you fall. I know I can't do as good a job as Mom and Dad, but it's my job to at least try in their absence. I'm sorry if I hadn't made that clear before, but I-"

"No, it's okay," Saphira interrupted me. "I wasn't trying to put any extra pressure on you or anything like that. I just wanted you to know that even though we're trapped in here, I don't want you to stop talking to me."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, a little confused at the direction that the conversation was taking.

"I mean," she sniffed as she wiped at her eyes. "In the entire time that we've been in this place, you and I haven't had a one-on-one conversation like we used to back in the real world. And I don't want our relationship to be a victim of this death game." Thinking back, I realized that she was right- we hadn't been talking like we used to.

"Victoria, nothing will ever change the fact that you're my little sister," I said as I pulled her closer to give her a full embrace, which she returned. "Not even a different reality is going to tear us apart like that, got it?"

"You promise?" she asked, her voice a little muffled by my shirt.

"Yeah, I promise," I nodded immediately. "I'll talk with you anytime you want."

"Good," she sighed. "Thank you for talking to me."

"Thank you for always listening," I replied quietly as she hugged me harder.

Then she let go and got to her feet, wiping the last of her tears from her eyes and forcing herself to smile. "I guess I should let Kirito know that he can come up now."

"Speaking of Kirito, where is he?" I asked her as I stood up to walk her to her own room.

"He's out back with Rivka," Saphira replied. "Said that since we were going to be a while, she should get some extra practice in with her spear since she doesn't fight as often as we do."

"I should have guessed," I said as I rolled my eyes. But for the first time in a while, my heart lifted with my lips as I smiled.

* * *

 **Closing Song: Awake and Alive (Skillet)**

* * *

 **Kirito: There he is!**

 **Mataras: Excuse me?**

 **Asuna: No, he's right.**

 **Mataras: Sorry, what?**

 **Saphira: They're saying that they can see the Red Swordsman again. Or at least, some parts of him. Right guys?**

 **Kirito: Yeah. You were definitely showing the base anger that he seems to feel again, at least for a bit.**

 **Rivka: Not to mention the sass and rude behavior that so many people seem to like for some reason.**

 **Mataras: I prefer to think of myself as direct and honest- even if it's harsh honesty.**

 **Saphira: Dad called you 'blunt'.**

 **Mataras: I can see that.**

 **Asuna: You're not the only one.**

 **Mataras: Bite me. You're not even in the story yet!**

 **Asuna: No, but I _will_ be next part- won't I...?**

 **Mataras: Relax, relax. Of course I'll have you in the next chapter.**

 **Kirito: So is the next chapter-**

 **Saphira: Yup! We're all gonna throw down with Illfang!**

 **Kirito: Awesome!**

 **Mataras: Haha, yeah! I'm all fired up!**

 **Saphira: Wrong story, bro.**

 **Gyatso: May I interject for a moment?**

 **Asuna: Gah! Where'd this guy come from?!**

 **Mataras: Oh hey, Gyatso. Don't worry guys, I invited him over. The other guest should be along any minute now...**

 **Korra: Hey, Mataras! Whoa, you got a big crowd over here.**

 **Mataras: Korra, glad to see you could make it.**

 **Kirito: What's this all about?**

 **Mataras: Oh, right. Sorry about that, I guess I should explain things.**

 **Gyatso: Allow me. See, Mataras invited Korra and I to remind this audience that his newest story, the Legacy of Korra, will begin on the first day of the New Year. I will be featuring as one of the main protagonists alongside Avatar Korra and her friends as part of the new Team Avatar. I sincerely hope that everyone reading this has a Happy Holiday until we meet again.**

 **Korra: Man, we have _got_ to work on that stiff attitude, buddy. Guess we'll have plenty of time for that, huh Mataras?**

 **Mataras: Good luck with that- I'm not joining this adventure. I've got plenty else to do on my plate.**

 **Yui: Merry Christmas, everybody! We'll see you next year!**


	4. Fighting Blood

**A/N: Hey guys, the Red Swordsman is back for more! I know that a lot of you have been looking forward to witnessing the first boss fight with Saphira, Rivka, Kirito, and of course, Mataras. I worked really hard on this chapter, and now that I'm finally satisfied with its quality, it's free for you to enjoy!**

 **OP Song: Cho-Zets Dynamic by Kazuya Yoshii (English or Japanese)**

* * *

 _The Dragon is awake  
His Blood burns brightly for kin  
Comrades watch in awe  
Enemies made cower in fear  
The wrath of fire is made known_

* * *

Fighting Blood

A bright sun shines across a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, warming the land that it graces with its visage. One of the first places to feel this luminous warmth in the land of Aincrad was the town called Tolbana, where several dozen players, three of my friends, and I currently resided.

And yet despite the beautiful weather, a frown had managed to entrench itself onto my face. _Two thousand people, dead,_ I thought bleakly. I was leaning against the wall of an NPC shop, trying to calm my thoughts with limited success. _More than eighty percent of them suicides… Argo was right- leaping lemmings is the perfect way to describe this whole thing._

The news had just come in last night in the form of a group numbering five players that had just arrived from the Town of Beginnings, which most of Aincrad's residents still called a temporary home. According to them, a good chunk of the people finally getting brave enough- or stupid enough, depending on how one viewed it- to go out hunting in the fields were being slaughtered by the mobs. The others that were desperate enough to leave continued throwing themselves off the side of the floating castle.

"Still thinking about the news?" Kirito asked as he approached me. He was dressed in his usual getup, a blue shirt layered with a silver vest, the Anneal Blade strapped to his back.

"I've been trying to think of anything _but_ , and I just keep coming back," I admitted sourly. "Tell me you've found a new area in the dungeon where I can blow off some steam before I go nuts."

We had found the main dungeon of floor one a little less than two weeks ago, and we had been working tirelessly to clear it level by level, of which there were supposed to be twenty. So far we had made it up to level nineteen, but the last one, where the floor boss was supposed to lie in wait, had thus far eluded our detection.

Or so I thought.

"Actually, we have just the place now," Kirito told me. "The floor boss' lair."

My eyes widened and I turned to look at my friend directly. "You're serious?" I asked him. "They found it?

"Just yesterday, apparently," my comrade nodded the affirmative. "The only reason we missed out on the news is because we were still out hunting when the party that found it came back into town."

"And I suppose we were dealing with the other news…" I muttered to myself. To my friend I directed the question, "Do we know the people that found the boss room?"

"No, it was a party of six led by a guy named Diavel," Kirito answered. "I heard some other players talking about it over breakfast this morning. There's a meeting today at eleven for anyone who wants to join the raid."

"Anyone?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Tell me they're not inviting noobs to this thing."

"Okay, the word 'anyone' is a little loose," Kirito admitted. "I'm pretty sure that the pre-required level is five for anyone to join the raid, but that's just hearsay." Since our party members were all level six, the prerequisite was not a problem for us.

"Meh," I shrugged. "Hearsay will probably be enough to scare off most players. It's not like we have people lining up to join the front out here. There's gotta be what, fifty players in Tolbana right now?"

"Yeah, but even if we had an army of experts on our side, taking on a floor boss with the death penalty in effect is not something we should take lightly," Kirito said with a frown. "The casualty rate back in the beta didn't bother us because that's just what happens in MMORPG's- people die in combat. We're gonna have to be even more careful now."

"You don't have to tell me," I scowled. "If I could, I'd ditch Saphira and Rivka for the boss raid so that I could be sure of their safety, but I doubt I'd survive."

"Wait, the boss or the girls?" Kirito asked.

"I'll toss a coin and let you know," I replied dryly. "Did you tell them already?"

"They were there when I heard the news," he answered. "You were the only one missing for breakfast."

"I got up early- had an errand to take care of," I shrugged.

"What's that?"

I hesitated for a second, trying to come up with a believable lie. "My sword needed maintenance," I told him. "I guess it's a good thing I took care of it since we've got the boss raid to look forward to now."

"Yeah, you got that right," Kirito nodded. "The girls are actually having their gear prepped right now, so we should probably go find them before the meeting."

"Let's get to it, then," I said as I checked the clock in the corner of my vision. "The meeting is in forty minutes." Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized Kirito wasn't in the least bit suspicious of me.

 _Then again, why should he be?_ I thought as we started walking towards the local smithy. _As far as he knows, I'm just a regular player._ A stab of guilt worked its way into my gut- I didn't like lying to Kirito, but with the way things were, revealing my secret to anyone at all could very well draw negative attention to him and the girls.

I trusted the boy, but I also knew that once a secret has been shared, it has a way of getting out.

* * *

The meeting spot for those that wished to participate in the boss raid was a ruined theater, styled in the likeness of old Greek architecture, complete with crumbling pillars, stone benches, and a platform for stage performance that was cradled by the rest of the building- or at least, what was left of it. There wasn't even a roof on the place anymore, and the stage looked like no one had performed on it in decades.

"What a dump," I muttered as we took our seats.

It was five minutes until the meeting was supposed to officially begin, so Kirito and I had caught up with the girls so we could come together. In assembly were about forty other players, give or take. Some of them were spear users, others had a mace equipped as their weapon of choice, there was even a tall man with a double-bladed axe on his back, but I would have said that about two-thirds of the present members were swordsmen.

Rivka and Kirito shrugged non-committedly at my appraisal of the area, but Saphira had a different perspective to share.

"I think it's kind of cool," she said as she looked around at the area. "Gives it a more authentic feel."

"How so?" I asked, curious about her line of thinking.

"Well, so far it's all been pretty fresh-looking stuff, but something like this makes it almost feel like a real town," she said as she sat next to me. "I mean, yeah, we've gone into ruins on a couple of quests in the forest, but never in a town. Kinda makes it feel like this place has its own history without even trying too hard."

"Still all fake," I said dryly.

"Silver lining, Mataras," Saphira smiled patiently.

"Hey, I think that guy is gonna be doing the briefing," Rivka said as she nudged Saphira with her elbow. She directed our attention to a lone player that had stepped up onto the stage. He stood a little taller than Kirito, and his face was fresh, young. His eyes and hair were a bright blue, and his locks fell to nearly brush his shoulders, but his facial features were just masculine enough to avoid him being mistaken for a female. At his waist was a one-handed sword, and on his back a shield was slung. His clothes looked a little more advanced than most of the players in the gathering, his armor a blue tunic reinforced by brown leather that had shoulder pads for extra protection, along with a matching greaves and a breastplate. He walked with confidence, and his expression was a friendly one- the image of a comic-book leader if I had ever seen one.

"So this thing is being put together by a pretty bluebird?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "So far, I'm not impressed."

"Well, seeing as his party probably found the floor boss, I don't think his choice of appearance is important," Saphira replied in a low tone. "We're already here, so might as well hear him out."

 _True, but if his team's discovery turned out to be a stroke of pure luck, I'm out of here,_ I thought. _No way am I risking the girl's lives if he's incompetent._

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of a single person clapping, the sound carrying well enough across the bleachers to draw everyone's attention to the young man on the stage. Once everyone was quieted and looking at him, he put his hands down, smiled, and began to speak.

"Okay, people!" he called out. "Now that we're all here, let's get this meeting started!" He paused for a moment to double-check that he had everyone's attention before continuing on to say, "First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming- good to see you."

 _He knows how to make people feel welcome, at least._

"My name is Diavel," he said by way of introduction. "And this game… The job I rolled is knight!"

The entire crowd burst into laughter at the ridiculous statement. "There's no job system in this game, dude!" one player called out. This was a fact that even I was aware of.

 _This guy is going to lose points with this crowd real qui-_

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" the young man asked, his tone changing from friendly to exasperated. This quieted the crowd, so he nodded to himself and said in a serious tone, "Right then, I'll cut to the chase. The deal is, my party discovered the boss room at the top of the tower yesterday."

There were mutterings of subdued excitement in the crowd this time, and even I felt a quick surge of anticipation. Finally, it seemed that significant progress was possible. I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees as I awaited his next words, curious to see how he would proceed with the briefing.

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to floor two," he stated. "Next, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it _is_ possible to beat this game." Clenching his fist, he added, "Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players in this game. Do you agree? Or not?" The last words were phrased as more of a challenge than an actual question.

 _Clever_ , I thought. It seemed that this Diavel fellow was appealing the gamers' sense of pride as skilled players in order to motivate them. _Perhaps he does know what he's doing._

They all took the bait. The crowd began applauding the blue-haired swordsman, one player even whistling with approval. I kept quiet, but I felt significantly better about our chances of managing to work together as a cohesive unit.

"Okay," Diavel grinned easily. "Glad to know you're all with me on this. So let's figure out _how_ we're gonna beat the boss. First step- team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss, so we need a raid group made up of multiple parties."

 _Oh, crap baskets,_ I thought with a shot of mild alarm. "We're short two players," I muttered aloud. Already, the people around us were forming into full parties, and none of them seemed to be left out.

"Good thing you know how to count," Rivka said as she rolled her eyes. "What would we ever do without you?"

"Not the time, Rivka," Saphira interjected before we could get into it. "Keep an eye out- maybe there's one or two players that'll be left over."

"Found one," Kirito said as he jerked his head to indicate a lone player sitting a couple of rows behind us. They were dressed in a long, hooded red cloak that his most of their features, including a majority of their face. However, based on the delicate chin that was visible and the stockings that they were wearing underneath their boots, it was apparent that they were a female. The hilt of a rapier was jutting out from the cloak, a somewhat uncommon sight in Aincrad.

"So who's gonna invite her?" I asked no one in particular.

"You volunteering?" Saphira asked.

"No, I volunteer Kirito," I replied.

"Wha- Why me?" he protested.

"You're the party leader," Ribka pointed out. "Makes sense to me."

"I'm an introvert!" he continued to protest.

"Oh for Pete's sake," Saphira huffed. "I'll go talk to her."

"Also a good idea," I commented. "She might feel more at ease with you than Kirito or me."

"Yeah, cos you two are _so_ scary," Saphira giggled. "Be right back." With that, she walked over to talk to the other girl.

"We're still short one, even if she decides to join us," Kirito frowned. "I guess we could make do, but-"

"Got room for one more?" a not-unfamiliar voice asked. I turned around to see PoH standing by our row, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Following me again?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Anyone ever tell you that you might have a vanity complex?" the man replied.

"No, you'd actually be the first," I shrugged. "In any case, we could do with one more member- assuming that's fine with you, Kirito?" I aimed the last part at our leader, who considered it for a brief moment.

Then he nodded, and said, "This'll just be a one-time deal, anyway. You cool with going our separate ways after the raid?"

"Heh, no worries, kid," PoH replied. "I'm solo for now, and I'm planning to stay that way for a while."

"All right," Kirito said as he set up the invite, which PoH quickly accepted. "Since you'll be working with us, it's only fair you know our names." He then proceeded to point out each of us while listing off our names while PoH nodded to himself as he memorized the details.

After Kirito was done, the man asked, "Who's the kid in red?"

"Dunno," Kirito answered. "We're hoping she joins us to make it an even six, but we've never seen her before today."

"Well, looks like we're in luck," I said as Saphira and the girl opened their menus together. "We've got out six players." Looking up at the left-hand corner of my vision, which displayed all of the party member's names and status, I saw added to the usual sight of my friends the names 'PoH' and 'Asuna'. _Asuna, huh?_ I thought. _Yep, definitely a girl._

The pair came over to join us, the other girl quiet and somber while Saphira had a friendly smile on her face. "We got us a fifth member," she said. Noticing PoH, she asked, "Whose this?"

"Our sixth member," I answered. "Saphira, meet PoH. He's joining us for the raid."

"Okay," she nodded, her smile fading just a bit. Something in the way she eyed PoH struck me as a bit off. Before I could wonder at the slight change in attitude, Diavel began to speak again, capturing our attention.

"All right!" he called out. "Looks like everyone's teamed up! Now then-"

"Hold up a sec!" a loud voice called down from the top of the bleachers. Turning around, we saw that the speaker was a man that looked to be in his mid-twenties, with orange hair that was spiked up in the middle, with two points sticking out to the side. On his chin was a neat little goatee. He had a sword on his back and he was wearing basic armor like most of us. He also looked very angry.

He leaped down the bleachers in a few quick bounds before leaping up onto the stage to stand a few feet away from Diavel. He turned around and spat, "My name's Kibaou, got that?!" Clenching his fists, he continued on to say, "Before we get started to take on the boss, I got something I wanna get off my chest!"

 _Oh, this oughta be real good_ , I thought sarcastically.

"We all know about the two thousand people that are dead, yeah?!" he demanded. Pointing an accusing finger at the crowd, he added, "Well some of you need to apologize to 'em- right now!"

"Huh?" I muttered. _Where is this going?_

"Kibaou," Diavel said, his voice calm and reasonable. "I think I know who you're referring to- the players that used to be beta testers, right?"

"Course I mean them!" Kibaou growled as he turned to face Diavel directly. "The day this stupid-ass game started, they just up and vanished! They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and grabbed the easy quests, too!" Waving his hand dismissively, he added, "This whole time, they've ignored us like we're nothing!"

Growling angrily for a moment, he whirled to look at the crowd again as he snapped, "Hell, I bet there's some of them here! Come on out, beta testers!" His tone had changed slightly to carry a challenge in it. "We should make 'em apologize to us! Then they should cough up the money _and_ the items they got!" Folding his arms, he added, "They can't expect the party to trust them if they don't trust us- why should we?!"

Now I was angry. _Kirito has saved our lives more times than I can count,_ I thought as I saw my friend begin to tremble from the pressure of Kibaou's demands. Saphira put a comforting hand on his shoulder to try and ease his mind, but it seemed to have little effect.

Glaring at Kibaou, I added to myself, _He doesn't need this kind of crap being thrown at him… And if no one else will speak up…_

"You have a lot of nerve," I said as I stood, surprising my teammates. I might have been an introvert like Kirito, but I wasn't afraid to take a stand against people that wronged my friends or family.

"The hell'd you say?" Kibaou glowered at me.

"You heard me just fine, you no-good piece of trash," I snapped, allowing my lip to curl up into a snarl. "The only thing you've proven here is that you're a greedy, ungrateful waste of space."

"Oh yeah?!" he shouted, a vein bulging in his forehead. "I dare you to come down here and say that to my face!"

"Mataras, don't do it," Saphira said in an undertone. "You'll only attract attention to us."

"I don't see anyone else ready to stand up for the beta testers," I growled, also keeping my voice down. Before she could voice another argument, I crouched slightly and leaped forward, covering the distance in two quick bounds. I landed three feet away from the obnoxious player, who took an involuntary step backwards at my sudden invasion of his space.

"What do you have to say now, trash?" I asked him, my voice laced with venom.

"Gentlemen, if we could-"

"I'm not done," I said over my shoulder to Diavel. He opened his mouth to protest, thought better of it, and decided to shut up.

"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Kibaou demanded as he took a closer look at me, quickly noticing that I was younger than him. "You're just a snot-nosed foreigner." The word he used was 'gajin', which literally translated as 'foreigner'. However, there was a slightly derogatory meaning behind the word that had developed over the course of several centuries. In this context, it was like an American calling a Mexican a fence-jumper.

"I'm the guy that'll pound you into the dirt if you don't shut up," I growled. I'd heard that word used against Victoria and I far too many times in my life, and I wasn't about to start putting up with it now.

The crowd started muttering in anticipation, some of them even voicing guesses that there was about to be a duel. Ignoring them, I added, "And I should be asking you the same question- who are you, and where do you get off trying demand things that aren't yours to begin with from people who don't owe you anything?"

"Say what?" he demanded, growing even more furious.

"The beta testers don't owe any of us," I said, turning partly to face the crowd. "So what if they had better knowledge of the game than the rest of us? At no point did they make any promise, or sign any contract to help out beginner players. Maybe you don't want to hear that, but it's the cold hard fact that many of us face.

"However…" I said, pausing briefly. "Who's to say we need the beta testers to advance in the first place? They didn't find the boss room for us. Diavel's party did that. You all made it here without their help, didn't you? Why bother with people that have almost nothing to do with your failures, or successes as it were?"

The crowd began muttering amongst themselves, some of them agreeing with my statements and questions, while about two-thirds of them remained uncertain. _This could well go either way,_ I thought with a frown. _But what else can I say to convince them that the beta testers are not what we should be focusing on right now?_

"Can I say something?" a deep, rumbling voice asked. We all directed our attention to the speaker, who stood up in the crowd to walk calmly over to where Kibaou and I stood. As he did, the other player and I both did a double-take.

The approaching man was dark of skin, massive in stature, well over six feet tall, and with muscles that looked like they had been sculpted by the artist Michelangelo. He was cue bald, and a massive two-handed axe was slung over his shoulder. He wore light armor, the color theme black-and-white with a gray chest piece.

 _He looks like he could tear us all limb from limb_ , I thought nervously as he stood to form a triangle with Kibaou and myself. _Whichever side he takes, it's going to be next to impossible to argue with him._

"Yo," he said easily, though his expression was a neutral one, not friendly. "My name's Agil. Kibaou, right?" The orange-haired player nodded nervously. Then he turned to me and said, "Don't think we got your name, kid."

"Mataras," I answered.

"Got it," he nodded. "Now, I just wanna make sure I got things straight here. Kibaou says that the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths, because they didn't help 'em. Also that they should apologize and cough up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No," Kibaou said shortly, growing angry again, but still mindful of the axe on Agil's back.

Turning to me, the massive fighter asked, "And you say that the beta testers had nothing to do with the player's deaths or our success?"

"As far as I know, yes," I nodded.

"Well, you're both wrong," he said flatly. Reaching back, he pulled out a small pamphlet bound with leather. "The item store hands these out for free- it's a guide book. You got one, didn't you?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Kibaou asked. I raised an eyebrow- this was news to me. Then again, our group didn't really need a guide book because of Kirito.

"You know who was handing these out?" Without waiting for an answer, Agil said, "The ex-beta testers."

The crowd's mutterings grew louder at this tidbit, and my other eyebrow went up in surprise. Again, this was news to me. Kirito certainly hadn't said anything about a strategy guide.

Kibaou's expression darkened, knowing that he had lost the momentum for his argument.

Agil ignored him and turned around to face the crowd, showing them his copy of the book as he said, "Listen up- everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died." His expression grew somber as he said, "Now, I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I came here to learn from those player's deaths. I'm here because I wanna learn how to beat the boss."

As the crowd began to see the reasoning behind Agil's argument, I glanced up at Kirito, who was breathing a sigh of relief.

The axe-wielder turned back to look at Kibaou with a look that read 'Got anything else to add?'

The orange haired player let out a short growl before he stomped off the stage and sat in the front row, his arms crossed and his expression sour.

The dark-skinned man turned to me with the same look, but all I did was bow slightly in respect to him before stepping off the stage and walking back to my seat. I ignored the stares that were directed at me, choosing instead to avoid causing a bigger scene. Agil also took his seat, and Diavel prepared to address us once again.

"Okay…" he said slowly, almost as if afraid of another interruption. "Can we get back to the meeting now?" When no one protested, he pulled out a brown booklet identical to the one Agil had shown us. Satisfied, he announced, "For info on how to beat the boss, it's all in here- the latest edition of the guidebook you just heard about."

Opening to some of the back pages, he continued, "According to the guide, the boss' name is 'Illfang the Kobold Lord'. He'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruined Kobold Sentinels. Illfang himself carries and axe and a buckler, while the minions use maces. He has four health bars, and when the last one drops into the red zone, he's going to switch from the axe and shield to a curved sword called a talwar. He can change his patterns of attack, too."

 _Oh goody_ , I thought sourly. Most mobs were programmed with a single pattern of attack and defense that was easy enough to exploit once one had it memorized. But since no one had fought Illfang before, we would have no idea what his patterns would be, not to mention we'd have to be extra cautious for any sudden changes it might employ.

Snapping the book closed, Diavel announced, "That's it for the briefing." Putting away the notes, he added, "Money will be divided equally among players. The party that defeats the boss gets the EXP. Whoever drops an item gets to keep it. Any objections?"

"Fair set of rules, actually," Rivka said. The rest of the raid party seemed to agree.

"Good!" Diavel said, satisfied. "Meeting adjourned, people! We leave tomorrow at ten a.m. Meeting adjourned, people!"

 _Huh,_ I thought. _That was a lot shorter than I thought it would be._

The crowd began to go their separate ways, some leaving immediately- PoH and Asuna among them- while others stayed to talk amongst themselves. Kibaou appeared to be apologizing to Diavel, but I still wouldn't trust the guy as far as I could kick him. _And I might enjoy seeing how far that is_ ¸ I chuckled to myself.

"Hey, uh…" Kirito said as he turned to look at me. "Thanks for that."

"No worries," I replied. "I can't stand people looking for freebies- or picking on my friends."

"Never would have picked you out for being so vocal, though," he said. "You mostly kept to yourself at school."

"You only had me in math class, and that's probably my weakest subject," I shrugged. "I didn't have much to say."

"Mataras actually has a propensity for violence, if you recall," Saphira pointed out. "I'm half-surprised he didn't actually deck Kibaou."

"Hey, that was just the one time," I protested.

"As if," Rivka laughed. "You pounded anyone that provoked you."

"Fine, but you can't argue that it wasn't effective," I muttered.

"True," Saphira conceded.

* * *

We spent the rest of the day hunting out in the fields surrounding Tolbana. We decided against going into the main dungeon in favor of doing some easy grinding that provided safer opportunities to raise the level of our sword skills. We didn't find any new treasure chests or get any decent drops, but we weren't really looking for them, either.

After dinner, I planned on retiring to my room for the night to get some extra rest, but Saphira had other ideas.

"A party for the raid team tomorrow?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why would I want to attend that?" We were all in Kirito and my room.

"Oh come on, it's not like it's a formal gathering," Saphira said, slightly exasperated. "It's just a casual come-as-you-please-type thing. It'd be a good way to get to know the people we're fighting alongside tomorrow."

"Nah," I sniffed.

"Why not?" Rivka asked. "Saphira's right- we should get to know the assault team, especially if we're going to be putting our lives on the line together."

"Is it a mandatory meeting?" I asked.

"No," Kirito shook his head. "But I'll be going to try and figure out what kinds of weapons we'll be working with. Maybe even find out which position our group will be playing if Diavel's there."

"Okay, sounds like a plan," I said as I lay back on my bed. "Knock yourselves out."

"What?" Saphira frowned. "You're still not coming? _Kirito_ is going, and not you?"

"Hey…" the boy said, slightly offended by the implications aimed at him.

"He's the strategist," I shrugged. "I'm just the bash-and-whacker of the team."

"You're just lame is what you are," Saphira sighed as she turned around to open the door that led to the hallway above the tavern we were staying at. "Fine. We'll see you in the morning." And she left the room, followed by Kirito and Rivka.

Sighing quietly to myself, I reached over and shut off the lamp that was illuminating the room for the night. I closed my eyes, trying to settle the nerves that were already starting to build in anticipation of the hunt set to take place tomorrow.

 _Hopefully our party will be capable enough to take down Illfang,_ I thought. _Maybe I_ should _equip it, just in case…_ I toyed with the idea for a few silent moments before discarding it. _Better not. With Kibaou throwing blame around the way he was, I'm better off keeping that little trick a secret for now._

After solving that particular dilemma, I tried to fall asleep, but one other thing continued to bother me. For about twenty minutes, I tried without success to ignore it, but eventually I just couldn't. Swinging my feet out of bed, I swiped open my menu to equip my boots and sword before heading out the door.

 _Mom and Dad would kill me if they found out that I let Victoria go to that party without me,_ I thought grimly as I shut the door behind me, which automatically locked out anyone but Kirito and myself.

* * *

The gathering was set in the town's center. During the daytime, this was a bustling little market, filled with NPC's wandering around, many of them offering quests of some variety. The rest were shopkeepers, selling food, weapons, armor, and other goods. However, during the nighttime, the area was all but devoid of the programs, leaving plenty of room for the players that had come together.

I kept to one of the alleyways, watching the proceedings from afar. Interestingly, Kirito was sitting next to Asuna, and appeared to be making attempts at small talk. However, I did notice that he was occasionally glancing over at Saphira and Rivka to keep an eye on them.

The girls were talking to a group of three other players, and judging from the smiles and occasional laughter going around, things were proceeding smoothly. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious, so I would continue to keep an eye on them.

At least, that had been the plan.

"Hey kid," PoH's voice said from behind me, startling me enough to turn around and whip out my sword with practiced speed. Eyeing the sharp blade, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you going to do that every time we meet?"

"If you keep sneaking up on me, I might make a habit of it," I replied with an annoyed tone as I put my sword back in its sheathe. "Seriously, how hard is it to come up to me face-to-face?"

"Not hard, but this is just more fun," he chuckled. He then extended a hand to me, which was holding a steaming mug that carried a sweet scent. "Here, try this. Take it as an apology from me."

I took the mug from him, noticing that he had an identical wooden cup in his other hand. "What is it?" I asked as I eyed the liquid inside, noticing that it was dark yellow in color.

"Cider," he replied before taking a drink from his mug. Once he had swallowed, he added, "The ingredients were a reward from a quest I took on a couple weeks back. I think it was called the 'Fruit of Knowledge."

"The quest or the fruit?" I asked.

"Quest," he answered. "Had to gather a bunch of apples from an orchard guarded by bees that liked the sap from the trees or something."

"Hmm…" I mused. "Why wait so long to use the ingredients, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, the ingredients are rare- for this floor, anyway- and since we're going up against the boss tomorrow, I figured now's as good a time as any," he answered.

"Toasting to victory a little early, aren't you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Heh, we're not guaranteed tomorrow," he pointed out. "Might as well make use of the stuff we have now, right?"

"Good point," I nodded as I realized he was right- there was every chance that some of us might survive tomorrow's raid. Eyeing the mug once more, I asked, "This doesn't have alcohol in it, does it?"

"Can't get alcohol in this game," PoH said with a shrug. "Some players tried adding mildly poisonous liquids to their drinks to get the feeling of a buzz, but speaking from personal experience, all it does is make you feel sick. And if it makes you feel better, I'll throw myself off the edge of the floor if it's poisoned."

"That works," I said before taking a drink. We were in a safe zone, so even if it was poisoned, it would have no harmful effect on my body. But as it turned out, I had nothing to fear.

The flavor surprised me- it was pretty much exactly like the warm apple juice I'd had back in the real world. Looking at PoH, who was grinning slightly, I said, "Thanks. This is pretty good."

"To the lives we've lived," he said as he raised his mug. I clunked my cup against his, and we both drank until we had emptied the containers.

"Ah…" he breathed. "Good stuff."

"I'll second that," I agreed.

PoH looked like he was about to say something else, but then he paused and frowned as he looked at something past me. "Looks like your teammates have attracted some unwanted attention," he informed me, prompting me to turn around.

My eyes widened as I saw Kibaou talking to my sister and friend, who were looking decidedly uncomfortable. I started speed-walking over to them, even as the man tried to put a hand on Saphira's shoulder.

 _That does it_ , I snarled silently. Reaching my hand back, I felt a sword skill called 'Thrown Sword' kick in, which caused the mug to glow bright blue. This skill was primarily for antagonizing mobs from a long distance in order to draw them away from their companions and avoid being swarmed by groups of monsters. It was usually used with throwing knives or darts, but I suppose if something could be used as a projectile, the system would lend its auto-assist.

Whipping my arm forward, the cup shot through the air to slam against a trio of purple hexagons that appeared just in time to protect Kibaou's head from taking damage. This was a by-product of the town's safe zone, which prevented any manner of harm to players within its boundaries, unless a duel was engaged.

Even so, the impact and noise of the panels performing a block startled the spiky-haired player, and he turned around just in time for me to reach out and seize him by the collar of his shirt. "Keep your hands off of her, trash," I snapped before shoving him away.

"You must have some kind of death wish," he growled as the crowd looked over to see Kibaou and me butting heads again. "Don't touch me, ever."

"I'll drop you off the edge of Aincrad if you touch Saphira again," I snarled angrily.

"Is that a challenge?" he asked, his face turning red with anger.

"Don't tempt me," I warned him. "Duel me, and it'll be the last thing you do." The crowd around us began to mutter amongst themselves, though none of them stepped forward to interfere. The atmosphere was growing tenser by the second, but I ignored all of this.

"What's your deal?" he demanded. "What'd I ever do to you?!"

"First of all, you demand things that don't belong to you like a spoiled child, which is just an eyesore and an earache," I told him flatly. "And then you dare to lay hands on my kid sister." He jerked back in surprise at that little tidbit.

"Your…"

"Yeah, I am," Saphira nodded, and the crowd's mutterings increased. "And he's got a real short temper for people like you, so I'd just as soon not make him angry."

"We're in a safe zone," he sputtered. "He can't hurt me in here."

"No, but since you touched me, I now have option to activate the system's anti-harassment code," Saphira replied.

The anti-harassment code was a way for players to lock up other people that were touching them without consent. It was disabled for party members and friends, so it wasn't an issue for us so far.

Kirito had informed us that players affected by the security measure were sent to the Black Iron Palace, a prison set up in the Town of Beginnings near the main spawn point. Escape was impossible, even with maxed out lock picking and/or stealth skills. The NPC guards could not be bribed by the prisoners, though someone could choose to bail them out by paying a fee.

Said fee increased for repeated offenses and the level of crime committed. For example, a person caught for harassing someone- like Kibaou had just done- warranted a smaller fee, perhaps five hundred col or so. But a thief- depending what was stolen by them- could not get out without a minimal fee of five thousand col, a very steep price for the time we were currently in. There wasn't even a weapon that you could buy for that amount on the first floor.

If someone wasn't lucky enough to have a friend that would get them out, they would serve a set amount of time that would increase if they tried to escape the facility with lock picking or stealth. Again, each level of crime that was recognized by the system had a corresponding sentence to it.

Still, five hundred col or a week in the Black Iron Palace was nothing to sneeze at, which made Kibaou feel very nervous as Saphira went to hit the command that would teleport him away. But he couldn't stop her- it would simply increase the time he would have to serve in jail.

"Hold on just a moment," said Diavel as he walked into the midst of the scene. Seeing me, he frowned and asked, "Why am I not surprised to see you in the middle of things here?"

"You shouldn't be, especially since this concerns a teammate of mine whom I am sworn to protect," I replied stiffly. "Kibaou was harassing Saphira, so she and I are going to put him in his place."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Kibaou protested.

Saphira levelled a stern gaze at the man that I had rarely seen in all my years of knowing her as she said, "I told you to leave me alone, and you try to act all cute and put your arm around me. I'd call that out of line, buddy."

"I was just-"

"Be quiet, Kibaou," Diavel said sternly, causing the other man to shut up immediately. Turning to me, he said, "You seem very protective of your teammate. May I ask why?"

I had already told the truth for everyone present to hear, even though mentioning real-life details was supposed to be a taboo in the virtual world, so I saw no point in holding anything back now. "She's my little sister," I informed him. "And the last people to pick on her ended up in the hospital when I was done with them"

Diavel's eyes widened briefly, but he was quick to compose himself. "Well, since we're going to need every fighting man we need tomorrow, I would appreciate it if you would cut him some clack in the matter," he said, his bearing a little more contrite.

"That's not good enough of a reason for me," I said coldly. "Then again, it's not my call to make." Turning to Saphira, I asked, "What do you think?"

She looked back and forth between the two men and several times before lowering her hand. "He gets one free pass," she said quietly. "I believe in second chances for everyone, even if I don't like them." She noticed Kibaou relax, so she scowled, "I wouldn't get too happy about it. We'll be keeping an ear to the ground about you, and if you make one move that we don't like, I'll sick Mataras on you." This was a side of my sister that rarely showed itself, but in all honesty, I was more afraid of invoking her anger than someone attracting my own attention in a negative light.

"While that idea suits me just fine, do I need to remind you that there's a person attached to this sword?" I grumbled, trying to set aside my unease.

"Thank you," Diavel said gratefully. "I appreciate it." He paused before adding, "In the interest of things going smoothly for tomorrow's raid, I will be keeping your party apart from mine. Kibaou is going to stick with me as a vanguard player, while yours deals with the sentinels and take turns switching in with other parties to assist in lowering the boss' health."

My left eye twitched involuntarily as I realized the implications of what he had just said. "So while this scumbag is getting to take on the boss with you, my party is stuck with covering your butts in case someone screws up?" I demanded.

"We'll get our shot at the boss, don't worry," Saphira said in a calmer manner than the tone she had been using previously.

"You _can't_ be okay with this," I said, shocked that she would agree to something so stupid.

"Look, all that's important tomorrow is that we beat the boss," Rivka said as she threw in her two cents. "Does it really matter who plays what role?"

"Yes it does," I snarled. "People like spikey over here don't deserve the rewards that come from defeating such potent enemies."

"Mataras, I understand that you're upset, but-"

"No," I growled angrily, cutting off Saphira as I turned around to walk away. "I refuse to take this lying down." Ignoring her request for me to come back, I kept on walking.

As I did, I passed by PoH, who said in a low voice, "Accidents happen in the field, kid. Might wanna keep that in mind tomorrow."

I paused for just a moment to consider the implications of what he had said. Then I kept walking.

* * *

I reached my room and tried to kick off my boots so that they would slam into the wall so I could vent my frustrations. However, the system did not allow me to remove them in the conventional way, so they remained firmly on my feet, despite my attempt to dislodge them. This only served to enrage me further, so I let out a shout of rage and slammed my fist into the wall, trying to take out my anger on the-

A purple hexagon appeared where my fist had landed that read 'Immortal Object'. For some reason, this took my rage to the next level, so I pounded the wall again, only to have the same result. I did it again. And again. Again.

Each time, as if to taunt me, the purple glyph appeared to inform me that no matter what I did, I was powerless to damage the wall in any way. _Just like I was powerless to punish Kibaou._ With a savage roar, I slammed my fists into the structure over and over until I was too exhausted to continue, and I sunk to the floor, defeated.

Why? Why did people like him always seem to get off easy while the ones that tried to right by the laws of society seemed to receive the harsher treatment?

Looking down at my hands, I saw that there was no sign of a bruise or scratch on me. There wasn't even an ache coming from the points of impact.

It was so strange, this feeling of… Well, more the lack of feeling was what unsettled me. Even though everything around me seemed real, and yet in that moment it truly began to dawn on me just how disconnected we all were from our true forms. Pain was a part of everyday life, a warning that the body gave our minds to let us know that we needed to retreat from whatever the source was so that we could heal properly. It taught us what our limits were, and we could either concede to the challenge it presented, or push through and emerge stronger for it.

That teacher had been removed from our world, and without it, I felt a strange disquiet in my mind.

With my thoughts still whirling around, I used my menu to take off my sword, boots, and gloves before lying down on my bed. Despite the high speed at which my mind was moving, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

* * *

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of my alarm, only to see that I was still alone. I supposed that meant Kirito had come in after I fell asleep, but also gotten up earlier than I had. Sighing to myself, I swung my legs out of bed and equipped the gear that I would need for that day.

As soon as I was ready, I resigned myself to the task at hand and made my way across the hall to knock on my sister's door. _I hate it when I'm stupid,_ I thought to myself.

"Who is it?" I heard her call in from inside.

"Me," I answered.

"Coming," she said. A moment later, the door swung open to reveal Saphira, who was also dressed in her battle gear. She eyed me with mild reproach, neglecting to speak. Apparently she was waiting to see if I was going to be reasonable.

"I'm sorry I caused a scene last night," I said in defeat. "I shouldn't have lost my temper, and I especially shouldn't have taken it out on you."

She raised a single eyebrow before saying, "Is that all?"

"That's everything I'm sorry for, yeah," I nodded.

"Fair enough," she smiled as she hugged me. "I forgive you, silly."

"Thank you…" I said gratefully. I hated fighting with Victoria- it always left a bitter feeling in my stomach after I had calmed down. Even here in SAO, the sensation lingered on. _I suppose that there are some feelings that remain engraved into our psyche._

"Come on," Saphira said as she released me. "Kirito and Rivka are getting in some last-minute practice before the raid."

Looking up at my clock, I noted that the time was 7:10. "Let's go join them," I suggested. "We can get breakfast after we've worked up an appetite."

* * *

After joining up with our usual teammates, we engaged in mock combat using the system's 'safe duel' function until 9:00, when we went back to the tavern for a meal. After eating our fill, we headed over to the meeting place, where some other players had already begun to filter in.

Among them was Agil, and he waved a friendly greeting to us, which Saphira returned with a charming smile. After we got close enough, Kirito decided to talk strategy with the axe-user, since apparently he was going to be leading one of the 'stab' teams.

This left the girls and I to lounge about and talk quietly amongst ourselves. That is, until Asuna came into our midst, as quiet and reclusive as she had been the previous day. She sat down in one of the corners of the bleachers, apparently content to stay there until the entire assault team had arrived.

"You should go talk to her," Saphira prodded me.

"Why?" I asked.

"You're the only one in the party that hasn't had a conversation with her," she said. "Kirito and Rivka talked to her a little bit at the gathering last night."

"She seems nice enough, but it's hard to get her talking," Rivka said, her expression non-comital. "The only thing that she seemed to open about was her drive to get out this game."

"I suppose I can try to start with that," I sighed, knowing that my sister was not going to let up until I had talked to our new teammate.

I approached her with the words, "Good morning." It was the best way to get the ball rolling, I thought. I stopped when I was standing about two paces away from her, not wanting to intrude on her personal space.

"Hello," she replied without looking up at me, keeping her profile hidden in her hood. Her voice was soft, and slightly high-pitched, but not unpleasantly so.

I hesitated over what to say next, but after a few seconds, I decided to be honest with her. "Okay, I know this is awkward, but my sister kind of made me come over here to talk to you," I told her. "I'm no good at small talk, so I really have no idea how this is going so far."

"You're fine," she said with a slight incline of her head. "I'm just not one for talking, either. I'd rather invest my energy into thinking about how to take down the boss so we can all get out of here."

"On that, we can agree," I said before gesturing to the spot next to her. "Mind if I sit here?"

"If you want," she shrugged.

"Thanks, Asuna," I said as I sat down.

"Wha-?" she asked as she turned to face me directly. It was hard to tell with the hood, but I thought she was frowning. "How'd you know my name?"

"What, you don't know mine?" I asked her, intrigued. I thought that Saphira had told her our names, but I suppose she could have not been paying attention when she did.

"No, why would I?" she asked, seemingly annoyed.

"Well, it's right here for you to see…" I told her with a slight frown of my own. I pointed upwards with my left hand to the corresponding corner of my vision as I added, "If you focus your peripheral vision in this area, you can see the names and health bars of all your party members."

"Hmm…" she mused, apparently concentrating. After a moment, she laughed softly, "Huh. I feel dumb now. It was right there this whole time, and I didn't even notice." Shifting slightly to look at me directly, she asked, "So who are you?"

"I go by Mataras in here," I told her. Then a thought struck me. "Uh, Asuna?" I asked her. "Have you ever played in a party before?" If she didn't even know how to check on her teammates status', it was unlikely that she knew the other particulars of being in a party.

"No," she shook her head, confirming my thoughts.

 _Oh boy…_ I thought dejectedly. _I suppose Kirito is going to have to give a crash course in how to play in our party… Great._

* * *

We set out at ten o' clock precisely, with every member of the assault team ready to go. The main dungeon was inside a mountain, and to get there, we first had to travel through a forest, which would take about an hour.

As we walked, Kirito spent the time explaining to Asuna the mechanics of fighting in a group- switch tactics and the like. He asked PoH if he needed a tutorial, but the man stated that he had played with groups in other MMO's, so he had a pretty good idea of how things would go.

"Our main targets are the sentinels," I heard Kirito say. "But those will stop spawning once Illfang's health drops into the red zone, according to the guide book."

"Got it," Asuna nodded.

"You feeling up to the challenge?" I asked Kirito as I fell into step beside him.

"Heh, always," he grinned. "You?"

"Since when am I not?" I replied. "Bet you I can take down more sentinels than you."

"Feeling pretty confident, huh?" the raven-haired boy said, his smile becoming more challenging. "You may be pretty good at combat IRL, but I'm pretty sure I'm still your superior when it comes to mob kills."

"Wanna make a wager on that?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"You're on," he nodded.

"What are you two doing?" Saphira asked us.

"Probably something stupid," I shrugged.

"Stupid of what variety?" Rivka asked.

"The potentially embarrassing kind," I grinned.

"What did you have in mind?" Kirito asked.

"Whoever gets more kills doesn't have to take part in the penalty," I answered. "The penalty being that once we get up to the main town of floor two, the loser has to run across town and back in nothing but his boxers."

"You gotta be kidding me," Saphira said as she slapped her own forehead. "Tell me you're not serious."

"If Kirito is game, I am," I replied. Turning to look at the other boy, who was thinking it over, I asked, "You up for the challenge?"

"Only if you're ready to lose," he smirked.

"That's my line," I replied in kind. "But in any case, it looks like we have ourselves a bet."

"Then the bargain is struck," Kirito said as we shook on it.

Off to the side, Saphira muttered, "Would you believe that he and I share genetic material?"

"Why, because he's a total moron, or because you're too nice for your own good?" Rivka said.

"I'll flip a coin for it," my sister answered, unknowingly repeating my comment from the previous day.

* * *

We battled our way up through the dungeon for several hours, until at long last, we stood before the giant black gates that would lead us into the boss room. As he stood before the doorway, Diavel turned around to address us as he planted his sword firmly in the ground.

"Okay, listen up everyone," he said, his expression grim. "I've only got one thing to say: let's win."

Several of us growled in approval, myself included. My sword was already out, vibrating in small circles as I awaited the command to charge. I could already feel my fighting spirit stirring, and I was prepared to unleash it in full.

Kirito was also armed, but he looked a lot calmer than I did. Saphira had her blue blade in her left hand at the ready, while Rivka was gripping her spear slightly, her face a steely mask that hid her fear. PoH had a slight grin on his face as he readied his dagger, while Asuna's expression was still unreadable as she gripped her rapier.

"Come on," Diavel said as he pulled his sword from the ground and turned around to shove open the gate with one hand.

The doors opened slowly, and our leader led us in cautiously, every sense on the alert for the appearance of the boss.

Not that it was really needed- as soon as the last of us passed through the door, there were two pinpoints of white light that flashed to life at the far end of the room. The room around suddenly began to glow with a myriad of colors, illuminating a room that more resembled a royal throne room than a lair, complete with solid stone pillars. The walls pulsated and shifted as if the colors were some kind of strangely mixed ooze that was being held back by a glass pane. The floor beneath our feet retained an appearance of being stationary, so at least we wouldn't be completely disoriented as soon as we stepped on it.

Not that any of these things held our attention for very long. From the place where the two pinprick lights had been seen, a massive beast leaped up and forward from the throne it had been resting on. As soon as it landed its eyes- which had been the lights we had seen- gleamed with a red light as it roared loudly to declare its challenge against the intruders that dared to violate its sanctum. While it bellowed at our party, four health bars appeared above its head in addition to a red marker and the name 'Illfang the Kobold Lord'.

If not for the massive axe it had in one hand, the huge buckler in the other, the longsword on its back, and the threat of death hanging over me, I would have had a hard time taking the thing seriously.

It vaguely resembled a giant red kangaroo with a strange white tattoo on its rounded stomach. For armor, it wore a helmet, gauntlets, greaves, and a loincloth.

 _If not for the death penalty, I would be laughing myself silly right now,_ I thought even as the beast was surrounded by several smaller glows that quickly brought forth red gremlin-like creatures with chest pieces, full-face helmets, and wielding rough-looking clubs.

"Oh come on, these things are just asking for someone to make fun of them," I complained out loud. "What, are we not supposed to feed them past midnight so they don't end up reproducing?"

"Laugh if you want, but these things are more dangerous than any of the field mobs we've fought before," Kirito reprimanded me. "Don't let their appearances fool you."

"No worries," I said as I grinned fiercely. "As far as I'm concerned, I'll have the last laugh once we're done with these things."

"Commence attack!" We heard Diavel give the command, and just like that, we all switched to battle mode. The assault team surged forward even as the boss and its minions rushed at us, determined to keep us from going up to the next floor.

"Mataras, Saphira, go!" Kirito shouted.

We needed no further encouragement as we shot forward in unison, our swords lighting up with pale blue lights as we raised them in preparation to unleash our sword skills.

"Block!" I shouted as the target sentinel's mace came up and over, aimed to crush my head. Staggering my pace just enough to let Saphira get by me, I slashed at the monster's gut right after her blade stopped the club dead in its tracks.

Since her attack and the minion's had cancelled each other out, they were both instantly paralyzed for a few precious seconds. Before the post-motion paralysis could affect me, I moved my sword into another pre-prepared position and let loose with a three-hit combo that carved several red gashes in my opponent's armor, and draining its health substantially.

Still, it wasn't even in the yellow zone yet, and I felt my body seize up as I finished the attack without connecting another one. _Come on…_ I thought.

"Asuna, PoH, switch!" Kirito ordered. The pair darted forward to drive back the monster, PoH aggravating it with a single slash from his knife that put its health in the yellow area, followed by Asuna, who had her rapier in position with the hilt resting near her hip. Even as we watched, her sword lit up with green light before shooting forward with lightning speed. So fast was her blade that we didn't even see it after the skill bad begun- we could only tell where it had been because of the residual light.

The little monster broke into pieces as the last of its health points were drained. The rest of us looked at the cloaked girl with great surprise. _I thought she was going to be dead weight!_ I thought while she lowered her sword as soon as she could move again. _But her attack speed is in a completely different ballpark!_

I had the fastest attack speed in our party, so the fact that even I was having a hard time seeing Asuna's sword moving meant that she must have invested the majority of her points into her speed stat, though the damage she had managed to inflict was nothing to sneeze at, either.

 _She_ really _wants out of this game_ , I thought even as another sentinel began to spawn near to us.

"Rivka, with me!" Kirito ordered. They rushed the monster even as it finished glowing, determined to take it out before it could attack them.

"Get ready kid," PoH grinned fiercely. "This ain't even close to over."

"Right behind you," I nodded in acknowledgement.

* * *

It was some time before we noticed a distinct change in the battle. PoH and I had just finished hacking into a sentinel's side, which caused it to break apart when Illfang let out another ear-shattering roar. Even as we turned to look at it, the beast threw its hands up in the air, discarding its axe and shield. Looking upwards, we saw that its last health bar was in the red zone, just as the guidebook had predicted.

"Everyone, stay back!" we heard Diavel call out, even as he rushed forward to challenge the boss, alone. "I've got this!"

"This isn't right," Kirito frowned. "He told me at the squad leader's briefing that we were all going to attack it together."

Diavel raised his sword up behind his head, and it flashed to life with a yellow light, even as Illfang reached behind its back and pulled out a long, black blade that looked like a snake's forked tongue at the end of it. Kirito immediately panicked, his eyes going wide as he called out to the blue-haired player, "Wait! It's no good!"

"What's wrong?" I asked him, now very wary of the boss.

"That's not a talwar, it's a nodachi!" he told me even as he ran forward. "This isn't like the beta!" Acting without being told, our team followed him, much to the surprise of the rest of the assault team.

We were too late.

The boss' sword lit up with a magenta hue before it leaped up, bounced off one of the pillars lining the hall, then shot from column to column with unbelievable speed. In our entire time in SAO, we had never seen a monster move that fast, especially one so large.

Then, without warning, it crashed to the ground right behind Diavel and dealt two devastating blows. The first one tossed him in the air with a cry of shock, and the second sent him flying the length of the hallway.

"Diavel!" Kibaou shouted as his leader crashed to the ground. But he had no time to worry about the fallen swordsman, because Illfang chose that moment to leap down in front of him with a vicious snarl. If it had been possible to do so in SAO, I'm fairly certain the man would have soiled himself right then and there.

"Cover us!" I shouted as Kirito changed directions to head away from the boss and towards Diavel. The others nodded and formed a defensive line a few yards away from us. "What in the world were you thinking, challenging a floor boss on your own?!" I demanded as we came within earshot. "Here I was starting to think you had a brain inside that stupid hair of yours."

Kirito quickly slid to his knees and cradled the other player with one hand while reaching for a potion. Diavel's health was in the red zone already, and draining steadily. But when Kirito tried to give him the red drink that would save his life, the blue-haired boy pushed the item away from himself.

"Huh?" Kirito wondered before the other player began to speak.

"You knew…" he gasped. "You were a… beta tester, too…? Right?"

The words clicked in my head immediately, and suddenly everything that Diavel had done up to that point made sense. "You were part of the beta," I said, cursing myself for not seeing it before.

"You were after the last attack bonus- the rare item," Kirito surmised out loud. Diavel could only grin weakly in response, even as his body began to glow.

"Idiot, drink the potion!" I snapped at him, but he shook his head in the negative.

"Please…" he begged us, even as I felt the cold stone of dread lodge itself in my stomach. "You have to… defeat the boss… for everyone here." There was a flash of light, and just like everything else that died in this world, he disintegrated, his pieces quickly disappearing until nothing remained of him but our memories.

I was vaguely aware of other players crying out in shock at the death of their leader, Kibaou's voice among them, but my head was too filled with conflicting thoughts and emotions. _Fool, we didn't need a martyr!_ I raged as I clenched my fists. _This was not worth dying over!_

And yet, his final request played back in my head, his wish for us to defeat Illfang on behalf of everyone in the death game. The entire time that we had spent in Sword Art Online, I had only been actively focusing on the survival of my friends and little sister, and no one else. If anything, I was condemning of the players that surrounded me. Unlike I would likely face death, however, Diavel's final thoughts had not been of himself, but rather the people that had put their faith in him. And while his underhanded attempt to get the last attack bonus was aggravating, his leadership and ability to inspire the others was… admirable.

Kirito stood up, his expression grim as our friends backed up to stand beside us. Seeing this, and knowing the intentions behind it, I decided to stop holding back. "I'm going with you," I said as I opened my menu and began entering commands rapidly.

"We're going too," Saphira said as she stood beside me.

"Mataras, what are you doing?" Rivka asked as she eyed my menu. "Are you-"

"Yeah," I nodded firmly. "This thing means business, so if there was a time to use it, that time is now."

"You're sure?" Saphira cautioned me, but my mind was made up.

I sheathed my sword even as I spawned two daggers in my hands and tucked them in my belt. "I'm sure," I told her as I materialized my final chosen item, a spear. "Keep him distracted so I can hit him where it hurts."

"Uh… What are you talking about?" Kirito asked. "And why is Mataras arming himself to the teeth? He can't use all those weapons at the same time!"

"Save the questions for later," I told him, eyeing the boss as it roared at the other fighters, who were scattered and frightened, completely incapable of forming any kind of solid defense against Illfang. "Right now, the boss needs to go down. I promise I'll explain everything after we've chopped him into pieces."

"Okay, I'll hold you to that," he decided.

"Then let's go!" I shouted as I led the charge against Illfang. The boss noticed us approaching and roared angrily as it prepared a sword skill that caused its blade to glow bright white. "Saphira, Kirito, block him!"

"You got it!" my sister shouted as she and our friend sped up to be ahead of us, swinging their swords to knock aside Illfang's nodachi.

"Rivka, get him!" I ordered.

"Already on it!" she yelled as she stabbed the off-balance monster with her spear, driving it even further back. Its health points continued to shrink, but it wasn't enough.

"Asuna, PoH, you're up!" I said, even as I darted around to the side of Illfang. It noticed my action and prepared to swing at me, but my teammates were already on the move. PoH drew its attention away from me by slashing it in the leg so that Asuna could hit hard.

But as she moved into position to land a hit, the boss suddenly changed direction and slashed at her with frightening speed. Before I could warn her though, Kirito called out, "Asuna, look out!"

She had just enough time to glance up, duck the blow, and let loose with a sword skill that knocked the monster back a few feet- just how I wanted it to go. In the process, however, her cape had been destroyed, finally revealing her face to us.

She was built athletically, with chestnut colored hair that fell past her waist, and eyes of the same color. Her face was slightly ovular with a small mouth that was set in a grim line. Her clothes consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt, a red combat skirt that matched the color of her destroyed cloak, and knee-high white boots.

In a nutshell, she was a very attractive individual.

However, I had more important things to worry about at the moment. "Take this, monster," I growled as I hefted my weapon. As I did, the spearhead flared to life with an orange light, but it was different in appearance from a sword skill. Instead of an aura-like shine, the light that was brought forth had the semblance of a flame, shimmering and translucent.

"Now die!" I shouted as I cast the weapon, which slammed into Illfang's back and knocking it forward so that it off-balance again. Still, it regained its footing quickly, and I quickly whipped out my two knives as it whirled around to confront me. The spear became dislodged from its back as it moved, but I decided to leave it for now.

"Didn't you hear me?!" I snarled. "I told you to _drop dead_!" The daggers lit up with the same flaming light that had appeared on the spear before I threw them, one after the other, aiming for Illfang's head.

Throwing shurikens and daggers had been part of my martial arts training over the years, but these knives were not balanced for throwing, so the blade that was cast from my left hand missed entirely, but the one from my right hand found itself stuck in the boss' eye. Illfang let out and angry snarl, lashing out with a wild swipe of its sword even as it yanked out the knife.

By chance, the massive sword it carried found itself on a path aimed directly at my torso. Seeing it coming, and knowing that it was too late dodge, I thought, _Uh-oh._ Then the blade slammed my body through the air, sending me sprawling on the ground.

"Ow…" I groaned as I forced myself to turn over on my back. It was the first time in SAO that I had felt any kind of pain other than a dulled ache that resulted from damage inflicted by a solid hit. This actually felt like a solid blow to my gut, though I was certain that it would feel a lot worse if I'd had a blade cut into my real stomach.

"Mataras!" Kirito shouted with concern.

"Brother!" Saphira called out at the same time.

The group ran over to where I had fallen even as I checked my health points. That single hit had put me in the yellow zone. If it had been a sword skill-inflicted strike, I would certainly be dead right now.

"Here, drink it," Kirito said as he handed me a vial with red liquid in it. I grabbed the vial quickly and downed the liquid, the taste of watered-down strawberries filling my mouth.

I noticed Illfang preparing to charge at us, so I pointed and said, "Scatter."

"Wha-?" PoH asked as he turned around to see what I was pointing at. "Uh-oh."

Illfang bounded forward, intending to strike us down once and for all, but then something unexpected happened. A massive axe collided with the broadsword, knocking it away from us. Agil interposed himself between us and the boss while a half-dozen other players rushed the boss, driving it back temporarily.

"Get your health back up," the massive warrior told me. "We'll hold him off until then."

"Just don't do anything too reckless," I grunted as I got to my feet with Rivka's help.

"Who, us?" the axe-wielder grinned. Then he was off, and I drew my sword while keeping an eye on my health points, which were slowly- if steadily- climbing back up.

"Can I have a brief explanation of what's happening here?" Kirito asked.

"Fine," I muttered. "I've got a weird skill called Dragon Blood. I'll explain the specifics later, but let's just say that right now I've got the wild card advantage over the sword skill system, so to speak."

"Um, they don't look so good out there," Saphira pointed out as Illfang slapped aside the other players like they were nothing more than flies.

"I'm good enough, let's go!" I snapped as my sword lit up with firelight. "Kirito, you're with me! Everyone else, back us up!"

Agil was the last man standing, but even he was beaten down by Illfang's might. The boss saw us rushing at it yet again, so it growled a final challenge. Its health points were nothing but a sliver of red now- one or two more hits, and it would be done for.

" _Get out of my way!_ " I roared as I approached. Illfang swung its sword at me, but by now the skill it was using was familiar, and therefore predictable. I went down to my knees, sliding across the stone floor and leaning back so that the huge blade whistled over my head, slicing through a few strands of my hair.

Summersaulting forward from my penitent position, I slashed at Illfang's legs with my fiery sword before getting to my feet and bounding away. "Now, Kirito!" I bellowed.

In response, his sword lit up with a bright blue glow, the Vertical Slant skill, a two hit combo. His first attack carved a massive gash in the beast's belly from its left shoulder to the right hip. The second strike followed the path of the first on a parallel track that went in reverse while Kirito let out massive, wordless yell, his ferocity seeming to amplify his speed as he laid the finishing blow.

The monster snarled, but the sound was not purely anger this time. Rather, it was a tone of defeat and helpless rage. Even as Kirito's final blow completed its execution, Illfang the Kobold Lord glowed with a brilliant white light that suspended it in mid-air for a few seconds before the monster exploded into thousands of shards.

At first, the only sound in the room was that of Kirito and mine heavy breathing, the tension of the moment causing us to breathe harder on reflex, even though these bodies did not physically tire or use oxygen to function.

The room around us rapidly drained of all color, leaving bare gray stone illuminated by torches that flickered along the walls, casting an even light across the hall. Now we had time to notice the gates that lay behind Illfang's throne- our way out to the second floor of Aincrad.

Then a massive word appeared in the air where Illfang had roared its last. 'CONGRATULATIONS!' it read.

We did it. We won. We had defeated the first boss- the first of one hundred.

The assault team began to shout collectively with joy and relief, the terrible danger having finally passed. Our menus quickly began to light up with notifications informing us of the EXP we had earned and the loot that had dropped

None of that interested Kirito, though. Turning to me, he asked heavily, "Okay… Spill. What was that I just saw?"

I sighed, knowing that I could no longer hide it. "All right," I told him. "You deserve to know- I have an advantage that allows me to surpass any sword skill that the system designed."

"That's a pretty bold claim," Asuna said as she frowned slightly at me. "Are you seriously saying that you're the strongest player in the game?"

"Of course not," I said, my tone a bit short. "I know that several players that could very well best me in combat- you and Kirito being among them. But no matter how high you level up your sword skills, I have an advantage that no one else does. Since I've seen a good number of attack skills in action, I know the patterns now. I can predict them and use that to my advantage."

"How does that make you any different from the rest of us?" Kirito asked. "Anyone can exploit other player's attack patterns if they memorize the skill system, too. It also doesn't explain how you used more than one type of weapon at the same time."

"I told you, the skill is called Dragon Blood," I explained. "It allows me to move outside the system's constraints while maintaining a set DPS that increases based on my stats and level. It also disables the use of other sword skills while in effect, but as we've all just seen, that also means I don't have to limit myself to one weapon's class.

"In other words, I can move however I want, with whatever weapon I want," I concluded. "With a style all my own, no one will be able to predict what I'll do next, because the sword skills can't control my movements." Kirito, Asuna, and even PoH stared at me with wide eyes at this revelation of mine.

"How…?" Kirito asked. "What are the prereq's?"

"Honestly, I doubt that there are any," I shrugged. "Ask Saphira and Rivka. They read the skill's description with me."

"He's telling the truth," Saphira added. "It said something to the effect that he was the lucky one of ten thousand to wield the blood of dragons, the most free of all beings. But when we tried to check his skill tree, it was just sitting by itself, no connection to any of the other possible weapon paths. It was just… there."

"Since it seemed like it was going to be quite the rarity, he decided to keep it under wraps to avoid attracting attention from any jealous players," Rivka added. "After Kayaba's announcement, it seemed even more risky to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak."

"Or this case, the dragon that got out of the bag," Saphira smirked.

"But… why not tell me?" Kirito asked. "I don't understand."

"I wanted to," I answered him sincerely. "I really did. But you've had enough on your plate, leading us, trying to figure out how to get out this game and make it home… I didn't want to burden you with something else to weigh on your conscience. Maybe it was stupid of me, but I-"

"Don't worry about it," he smiled a bit. "Honestly, if I had been in your position, I would have done the same. You're right, MMO players are a jealous bunch."

"Heh," I grinned, relieved that he bore no ill will towards me. I held out my hand to him and asked, "No hard feelings?"

He shook hands with me firmly and said, "Of course not. You're my friend, Mataras. And I know you wanted to protect me and the girls. That's honestly pretty cool of you."

"My big bro _is_ pretty cool," Saphira smiled warmly at me.

"Thanks, Sis," I smiled back.

"Yo," Agil said as he approached us. "That was some fine swordsmanship. Especially you two." He addressed the last part to Kirito and me. "I think it's safe to say that today's victory goes to you guys."

"No…" Kirito shook his head sadly. "It was because of Diavel… He led us here. Brought us together."

"He gave his life trying to take down Illfang," I added. "I'll remember him until the end of my life, even if no one else does." I meant it. Sneaky or not, the young man had triumphed, even in his death.

"Hehe," Agil chuckled. Turning to the other members of the assault team, he asked, "What do y'all think? These guys are pretty good, right?"

"Yeah!" one player grinned as he gave us a thumbs-up. Others quickly took up the call, clapping and cheering for us. Agil turned back to us with a slightly smug expression, so I just rolled my eyes, despite the slight grin on my face that I couldn't keep from breaking out.

Kirito looked surprised at the adulation at first, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn't all that opposed to receiving positive attention. Saphira gave the other players her most charming smile while flashing a victory sign at them. Rivka and Asuna kept their expressions neutral while PoH simply shrugged and turned around, keeping his expression hidden.

"Stop cheering!" an angry voice cut through the noise, instantly silencing the crowd.

 _Oh, you cannot be serious with this,_ I thought, exasperated as everyone identified the speaker as Kibaou. The man was sitting on the ground, his shoulders hunched and tears dripping from his eyes.

"Why?" he demanded once everyone had turned towards him. "Why'd you let Diavel die?"

"Let him die?" Kirito repeated, confused.

"That's what I said!" the man shouted, his eyes wide with anger and grief. "Admit it! You knew the attack pattern the boss was gonna use! You could have told us- then Diavel would have had a chance!" He paused briefly before adding, "He wouldn't have had to die!"

The crowd began to mutter amongst itself, some wondering if it was true, others quickly coming to their own conclusions.

"I know how they knew!" one of them cried out as he pointed an accusing finger at us. "They used to be beta testers- or at least one of 'em! They knew the boss' attack patterns, but they kept it from us!"

 _Oh, crap._

"I'll bet they're not the only one's here!" the player continued. "Show yourselves, beta testers!" No one dared reply to his challenge, either out of fear of being cast out as pariah, or because there simply weren't any others present. Either way, things looked grim.

 _At this rate, the entire alliance is going to fall apart,_ I thought gravely. _No one will trust each other now… Unless we give them all something in common. Something to hate._

I noticed Kirito swallowing nervously, and I realized that he must have been having thoughts similar to mine. He started to turn to face the crowd directly while Agil tried to placate Kibaou. Before he could speak out, though, I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Together," I told him in a low voice. _At this point, they won't believe us even if we told them the truth- and there's no reason he should have to go at this alone._

Seeing this, Saphira grasped my hand and said, "I'm with you, too."

"I'm in until the end with you guys, so if you're gonna do something crazy, guess I'm going to be a part of it," Rivka sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Kirito was quiet for a moment. Then a wicked smile spread across his face, and a sound emerged from his mouth that I didn't quite expect- laughter. It started out as a quiet giggle, increasing slowly in volume until it became a high-pitched laugh that lasted several seconds.

"So… you all think we used to be beta testers," he said slowly. "Please… It's not cool to put us in the same category as those noobs."

Now I understood where he was going. He was trying to focus their hate not just on beta testers, but on himself- or rather, us four- as to avoid starting a witch hunt for the other hidden beta players. And it seemed to be working.

"Wha- What'd you say?!" Kibaou sputtered.

"You heard him," I said as I began to walk forward, Kirito quickly catching on to walk by my side. Saphira and Rivka simply stood still with their arms folded, expressions hardening. "Most of the thousand players that scored a slot in beta were idiots. They didn't even know how to invest their skill points after levelling up."

"But us…" Kirito smiled a wolf's smile. "We're nothing like those guys. During the beta, our team made it to floors higher than anyone else. That's a fact."

"Of course we knew the boss' attack patterns," Saphira said, doing a very good job of projecting an aura of arrogance. "We fought monsters on higher floors than any of the other players, with way more advanced sword skills." This was surprising to me especially, since I knew how kind and gentle she really was, and how much she hated conflict.

"We don't even have to bother with info brokers, or the guide book," Rivka said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Because we know everything in there- and more."

"If that's true…" Kibaou growled, shaking with anger. "You're worse than beta testers, you're a bunch of goddamn cheaters, tha- ack?!" He was cut off by the sudden appearance of my fiery blade slanted a mere hair's breath away from his throat. The atmosphere in the room became dead quiet in the wake of my speed and accuracy.

I glared at him with all the fury I could muster as I snarled in a deliberate voice, "Don't. _Ever_. Take God's name in vain. Do it again in my presence…" I smiled coldly at him as I saw the seeds of fear in his eyes begin to take root. "…Let's just say that accidents can happen in the field. Am I clear?" When he neglected to give any kind of answer, I pressed my sword directly against his throat, though not hard enough to harm his health points as I bellowed, " _Am! I! CLEAR?!_ " My fury burned so hot in that moment, I was half-hoping that he would give me a reason to cut him to pieces.

Fortunately for him, he wasn't quite _that_ stupid. His response was a single nod as he backed away and rubbed his throat as if to make sure it wasn't cut.

"Good," I said, maintaining the smile that did not reach my eyes. I tried not to let my disappointment show at his decision. "Glad we cleared that up." Then I turned around and walked away, the players gathered around me, backing away quickly in fear.

But apparently Kibaou had one last insult to hurl at us. "If what you all say is true… then you're… you're beta tester cheaters, that what you are!"

I turned around to face him, within an ace of running him through. However, Kirito's arm stopped me from advancing on the fool. Instead, he seemed to be agreeing with Kibaou. He nodded and said, "Beta tester cheaters, huh…? Nah, that's too long of a title. So let's shorten it and call us 'beaters', how about that?"

"You think you're better than us?!" another player demanded.

"I got the last attack bonus, which means that I technically beat the boss," Kirito shrugged as he used his menu to equip the afore mentioned item- a long black coat dubbed the 'Coat of Midnight'. "Not to mention my friend has a unique skill that he just demonstrated pretty much puts him at the top of the food chain here. So yeah, we are kinda better than you."

There wasn't really any way for the others to refute that, so they all settled for glaring daggers at us as we walked away from them. As we rejoined the others, Saphira whispered, "Would you really have killed him?"

"I'd flip a coin," I muttered, the anger still pulsing through my blood. "Heads I win, tails he loses."

"Mataras…" Saphira said quietly, but sternly. "I know we live in a world where it's kill or be killed, but I really don't want you to have to live with blood on your hands. It might feel justified in the moment, but I know that one day, you'd come to regret it."

"Hmm…" I mused as I considered her words. We stood still in between Agil, Asuna, and PoH, waiting for one of them to say something, anything.

"That took some serious stones, kid," PoH finally said in a low voice as he opened his menu. We quickly received a notification that he had left the party as he added, "But if it's all the same to you guys, I'm gonna lay low for a while."

"Fine by me," I said shortly. "This was a one-time deal anyway."

"Hey, no need to be that cold," PoH grinned as he turned on his heels and turned to walk back out the doors we had come through, the other players deciding to let him pass, though they remained wary of him. He waved a hand in farewell, but neglected to face us as he did.

"Can't say that upsets me very much," Saphira muttered. "He gives me the creeps."

"He is strange, but I don't think he was that bad," I said in an undertone. "In any case, we have more important things to worry about." I turned to look at Asuna, whose expression was unreadable. In a somewhat somber tone, I said, "I suppose that this is good-bye."

"Yeah," she nodded quietly. Turning to Agil she said, "Thanks for trying to settle things down- that was pretty nice of you. Hopefully we'll see you around."

"We?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I might as well be marked as much as these guys, and they've shown that they're probably the most capable players in the game right now, so…" she shrugged and said, "Might as well stick with them."

"Huh?!" Kirito said in shock. "But why…?"

"Like I just said, those jerks will have it out for me since I worked with you," she shrugged. "Might as well make the most of it."

"Are you sure about this?" I cautioned her as I glanced over my shoulder to see some of the players impatiently gripping their weapons. "If you leave now, distance yourself from us… you could still redeem your status with the assault team."

"Are you guys saying you _don't_ want my help?" she asked challengingly.

"No," Saphira shook her head. "I'd love to have you along, if nothing else. But what my brother says makes sense- are you sure about this?"

Asuna hesitated for a moment before she nodded and said, "I'm sure. You all obviously trust each other a lot, and that's pretty rare in both worlds. I'd like to be a part of that."

"Well then…" Kirito smiled a bit. "Welcome to the party, Asuna. Uh… we're glad to have you with us."

"Glad to be part of it," she smiled back. Glancing at me, she added, "Even if one of you is kind of a psycho."

"I could choose to take offense to that," I muttered sourly.

"Do it later," Saphira said as she led the way up the stairs that stopped just short of the exit to the second floor. "Let's get out of here before there's blood." Turning around once, she waved a brief farewell to Agil who gave us a salute with two fingers before turning around and folding his arms to keep an eye on the angry players behind him.

"Fine," I growled as we followed suit. But secretly, my heart lifted, despite everything that was happening. Sure, we might have become outcasts, but in truth, it wasn't too different from back home for most- if not all- of us. We were used to others hating us simply because we stood outside of their perception normal- and we had grown to be fine with it, because in the end, all we needed was each other.

We now had a new, skilled ally, and we were prepared to fight for our cause to the bitter end. We had the power to forge ahead in our path so that we could one day conquer the floating castle called Aincrad. What more could we ask for at that time than the bonds of camaraderie?

For we would be the victors in the end, be it by my Dragon's Blood or not. Of that, I was certain.

How wrong I was… So very, very wrong. The sands of time were trickling slowly but steadily towards our encounter with a guild- no, a family- that would tear us all asunder.

Had but we known what was to come…

* * *

 **Closing Song: It's Over Now by Kevin Kiner**

 **Kirito: Well, I can't say that was totally unexpected, the way you flipped out on Kibaou like that. But I was wondering why you didn't bring up the Law of the Sword...?**

 **Mataras: That will come in time, don't worry. It's just that it didn't really fit into the flow the story at this time, and the last thing I want to do is make something feel forced. It's just not good writing to put something in a scene it doesn't belong in, just because I want it there.**

 **Victoria: I for one am interested to see the seeds of the Red Swordsman taking root inside of you. You were pretty angry back there, but it's still not the level of hatred your readers are used to seeing.**

 **Asuna: I have a feeling that those last few sentences will play a part in his return...**

 **Mataras: I won't disagree with you on that one. In any case, I hope you enjoyed the story, and please be sure to put up a review with your thoughts and/or requests.**

 **Victoria: And for those of you who haven't, go check out the Legacy of Korra story that Mataras has been working on. The next chapter comes out on the first of February, so he'll see you then!**


	5. Aftermath

**A/N: Hello one and all! I know that this chapter is long overdue, but I promise that it's worth the wait. In this installment, we see the group adjust to fit in not only Asuna, but one other familiar face as well! Who is it? Find out in about... two paragraphs.**

 **Opening Song: Lost in Thoughts (cover by LeeandLie)**

* * *

 _Beneath layers of stoic resolve  
_ _Echoes the beat of a yearning heart  
_ _A soul that longs for family  
_ _The boy that always knew  
_ _Eventually his past would come to light  
_ _Releasing his hidden pain_

* * *

Aftermath

I don't think I could ever recall a moment where I was as angry as I was then.

"Of all the _stupid!_ " I shouted as I threw a mug against a wall, causing it to break into polygons. " _Asinine!_ " There went a plate. " _Brainless_ things you could have done in your life, this is _by far_ the most _idiotic_ decision you could have made!" I pounded my fist against the table, which fortunately was designated as an immortal object, allowing it to withstand my wrath.

" _WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!_ " I demanded furiously.

Suguha Kirigaya's only response was to burst into tears.

* * *

The day had started out as normal as one could expect. Our band of five quickly made its way to the main town of floor two, a place called Urbus. It was much different from what we had come to expect from the towns in SAO, especially when you compared it to the Town of Beginnings, which was essentially a small city.

The second floor was about the same size as the first, but unlike the green, verdant hills, forests, and mountains, the new area more resembled the savannahs in Africa, brown and dotted with large boulders as far as the eye could see. Not far from the exit gate that led back to Illfang's lair sat Urbus, which was set in the middle of a large crater roughly three hundred meters in diameter. All of the buildings were flat-roofed and at the same height, with a main road running north-south that split the town in two.

According to Kirito, a desert wasteland lay beyond the dry grass plains, but it wasn't safe to go there quite yet. He also told us that there were caves we could find in some of the larger gatherings of rocks that led directly underground where a series of rivers flowed and connected at various points.

"What kind of mobs are we looking out for here?" I asked him grimly as we surveyed the newly opened area. We had just reached the outskirts of the town, where we could see a few-dozen NPC's wandering about and handling their stalls, just waiting for someone to come up and interact with them.

"Mostly big ox monsters with axes," he informed me. "Slower than the boars on floor one, but they pack way more of a punch."

"Sounds like those of us with higher strength stats will have to play as forwards while the others stay back so they can use their speed at max advantage," Rivka said, her tone also somber.

"What's the game plan for now, Kirito?" Saphira questioned the black-coated player.

He mulled the thought over for a bit before he said, "We'll spend the night here, but in the morning we're going to head out to a town called Marome."

"Any particular reason why?" I asked him.

"I'd rather give the other players a wide berth for right now," he winced. "Urbus isn't exactly large enough for us to hide from anyone, so I'd rather move out ASAP."

"Seems fair," I nodded.

"What do you think that the other players will do once they catch up with us?" Asuna asked quietly.

"Nothing, if they know what's good for them," I said, a slight growl in my throat.

Kirito glanced at me for a second before he added, "I doubt that they'd actually try to harm us, but knowing RPG players, they might try to make life difficult."

"Especially that Kibaou guy," Rivka frowned. "He didn't like us before- he's only going to get worse from now on."

"Not likely after the way that Brother handled him," Saphira said. "If he could've, he would've wet his pants."

"Glad to know that my threats don't go unappreciated," I said half-sarcastically. "But if we're done sightseeing, we'd better go trigger the main gate and find a place to hide for the night before the rest of the assault team finds us."

"All right, mister grouchy," Saphira rolled her eyes.

"He does make a good point," Asuna said neutrally. "Any ideas of where to go, Kirito?"

"Yeah, there's an NPC family on the south side that'll rent out the spare rooms in their house- most new players won't think to look there," our leader replied.

"Sounds like a plan," Rivka said as we began walking further into town.

"Are we doing any hunting today?" I asked once we drew close to small monument that marked the gate in the middle of the town.

"I'm beat," Saphira said. "I'd rather not."

"Our party got the EXP for killing Illfang, so we're good on that front for now," Kirito answered. "If you really want to go out, I won't stop you, but I wouldn't say it's a necessity."

"Sounds good actually," I replied. After a long day of fighting and struggling for our lives, a breather sounded pretty nice. "Just wanted to make sure we wouldn't fall behind."

"As compared to whom?" Saphira laughed. "We're probably the strongest party in the game right now."

"Just because we technically beat the boss doesn't make us the best players," Rivka argued. "There might be other players back on floor one that could beat us."

"If that was the case, why weren't they at the boss raid?" Asuna pointed out.

"Diavel mentioned that they had only just discovered Illfang's lair the other day," Kirito explained. "They put together a raid party from the people that they had to work with, probably because they wanted to give the other people a morale boost as soon as they could."

"That, or they wanted less competition for the prizes," I muttered just loud enough for the others to hear.

"Maybe," Kirito shrugged. "Regardless, floor one is so large that we didn't even go through half of it. There are plenty of areas with unknown quests that other players could have gone for."

"Why didn't we go for those if they're so lucrative?" Saphira questioned.

"Our goal is to get out of this place, not so much overpowering everybody else," Kirito said. "Staying ahead of the pack _will_ make us stronger than the average player- but we also avoid going out of our way as much as possible. We miss some quests here and there, but if anything we can go back if we ever hit a wall on the front line and need some solid EXP."

By this time we were standing in front of the main warp gate that would lead us straight back to floor one if we chose. However, we were more interested in opening the door so that other players could come up and see that it was indeed possible to make progress through the floating castle. We only needed to have one of us place a hand on the pillar and command it to open.

"Care to do the honors?" I asked Kirito as we looked up at the stone structure.

"Why me?" he asked as he looked back at me.

"You landed the last hit on Illfang," I reminded him. "You've led us this far. Time for the rest of Aincrad to follow suit."

"Okay…" he said as he steeled himself. "Once this thing is open, we make a break for the house I mentioned. No use in sticking around to wait for the masses."

"Agreed," Asuna nodded.

Kirito stepped up to place his hand on the cool sandstone and say, "Gate of Urbus, open." The pillar glowed with a gentle white light for a moment before fading and our maps popped up with a notification that showed a new teleportation point.

"We'd better get moving," Kirito said as he stepped back. "Everyone's gonna be getting the same notice right now, so it's only a matter of time before they start showing up."

"Then let's move," I said as we began to jog away from the gate in the direction that Kirito had indicated. We hadn't got halfway down the main road when we heard the sound of wind chimes, alerting us to the arrival of new players. _Kirito wasn't kidding_ , I thought as we ducked into a side road to avoid being seen. _That_ was _fast._

* * *

"Well, the town's definitely come to life," I said as I looked out my window onto the street below. We had taken two spare rooms for the party, one for the girls and one for us boys. Each room was comfortably furnished with two twin beds each, a small table with three seats, and a couch. Saphira had immediately claimed the couch as hers, insisting that Rivka and Asuna use the beds despite their protests.

Players had quickly come in droves even before we had settled in, most of them coming from the Town of Beginnings for curiosity's sake, but others for exploration and quest-hunting.

Even though we had agreed to take the rest of the day off, Saphira and I managed to discreetly obtain a few quests that we could get started on in the morning. So far we had only seen three members from the assault party, but we managed to avoid their detection while we were out.

"Any of them carrying torches and pitchforks?" Rivka asked half-sarcastically.

"Not yet," Asuna said as she stood next to me to look at the street. "So far it doesn't seem like there's an active search for us."

"I didn't think there would be, but it's better to play things careful," Kirito nodded to himself.

"Says the guy that would have tackled a floor boss on his own," I smirked.

"Wha- This is different!" he protested.

"He's right," Saphira said quietly, though her voice cut through the argument like a sharp knife. "People are a lot more dangerous than a floor boss." Her words weighed heavily, especially for Rivka and I, who were so used to her being the first to forgive and the last to condemn. Ever since we'd managed to secure our rooms for the night, it had been clear that something was on her mind, but I wasn't sure of how to proceed in asking her about it. _I suppose the direct route always gets results,_ I thought resignedly.

"Hey," I said as I moved to stand next to the chair she was seated in. "What's going on?"

When she neglected to answer, Rivka gestured for Kirito and Asuna to follow her as she said, "C'mon. Let's give them some time alone." Deferring to their judgement, the others followed her out of the room, presumably to the adjacent living area.

Once they were gone, I turned to my sister while pulling up a chair and said, "Come on, Sis. Spill it; what's bothering you?"

"I've seen how ugly people can be in the real world," she said quietly. "I guess I thought that when this was revealed to be our new reality, people would… I dunno… Go back to how they act in the real world?"

"Because when we play a game, we're acting as someone else, right?" I prodded. "We do things that we think we normally wouldn't. But the truth is that it's still us behind the controls. Now that we're trapped in here, it's just easier to see. And that's what scares you about the other players?"

"It's part of it," she nodded. "But I'm more afraid of what we could become if we're not careful…" Looking directly at me with hollow eyes, she said, "I saw that possibility manifest in you for the first time, Michael. You really were ready to take Kibaou's head off. Maybe the world would have been better off without him, but that wasn't your call to make. If you had gone through with it, you'd never be the same." Her words rang like a death knell, sending an icy chill through every fiber of my being.

Remembering that pulsing, raging fire and comparing it to the gripping cold that I felt now, I almost began to feel sick. Her dread was anathema to me, but at the same time my rage was a great source of strength, an integral part of me. I knew that she wanted me to say that I would never act like I had again, but I didn't know if I was capable of doing that.

 _Could I bear it if she chose to condemn me for something I did in a moment of blind rage?_ I wondered to myself. "What do you expect of me?" I finally asked her.

"I expect you to keep in mind that whatever feels right at the time could have consequences that you might not comprehend for a long time, years even." She answered sagely. "But things will eventually catch up to you in one form or another, whether it ends up being your conscience alone or a tangible repercussion." Her eyes softened as she took her hands in mine and added, "I don't say all of this to scare you, Brother. I just don't want to see a day where you despise yourself."

"I'm more afraid of you despising me," I admitted to her. "That more than anything would be my undoing."

"Michael, I'm your sister," she said gently. "I could never despise you. I could hate the things that you do of course, but we're family. I'll take my love for you, Mom, and Dad to my grave."

"Heh…" I chuckled past the lump in my throat. "You always know just what to say, Victoria."

"The words aren't mine," she smiled slightly. "I'm just the mouthpiece. You know that, right?"

"Of course," I nodded. "But I can't think of a better messenger than my little sister."

"Now you're just trying to flatter me," she said, her smile growing a bit. However, her expression went back to being serious as she added, "Think about what I told you, okay?"

"I will," I sighed heavily. "Mind giving me some time to meditate on this?"

"Sure," she said as she stood up to go. "I'll let the others know to stay away for a bit. Send us a message when you want to come out for dinner."

"Kay," I mumbled as she left. Once she had shut the door behind her, I moved to sit on my bed and crossed my legs while placing a relaxed hand on each knee. I slowed my breathing out of habit and forced my mind to empty of all things other than the sounds of my paced inhaling and exhaling.

* * *

It took a while before I reached the calm state that I sought. Once I had, I carefully allowed one thought from my awareness to filter in so that I could make it the sole focus of my contemplation. I weighed, inspected, overturned, and pondered upon Saphira's request for what felt like years. Rejecting it, accepting it, twisting it, compromising with it… Every angle was examined before I made my decision.

* * *

With a great effort, I allowed my mind to begin registering other sources of input beside my own thought and inner council. Sight and sound returned as I opened my eyes while touch, smell, and taste came back more subtly, since there was no immediate need for them. It was a bit darker outside than when I had begun my meditation, so I glanced up at my clock to note that it had been nearly an hour since I had begun.

As the sense of touch continued to filter back in, I noticed a dull ache in my abdomen. _Guess boss-slaying makes a guy hungry_ , I thought as I got off the bed to stand up straight. I was about to send the group a message saying that I was ready to join them for dinner, but a sharp knocking sound at the door stopped me.

"Yo!" a somewhat familiar voice said from outside. "Kirito? You in there, buddy?" It was a man's voice, young from the sound of it- though that didn't mean much since most of the game's population were teenagers and young adults.

Frowning to myself, I summoned my sword from my inventory and drew it quickly while I approached the door with light footsteps. The person outside did not seem like they were searching for trouble, but one could never be too careful. Settling into a slight crouch, I placed my hand on the doorknob even as the person on the other side said, "Ya better not be napping in there!"

I threw the door open and whipped my sword forward to point at the speakers' throat as soon as I saw where it was, stopping the sharp steel a mere centimeter from his body.

"Whoa!" he yelped as he froze in place. A man with shaggy red hair and a scraggly goatee stared at me with wide eyes. A red bandana held up his hair while the man himself was dressed in light armor with a curved scimitar at his waist. He seemed familiar somehow, but I couldn't quite place the memory at the moment.

We stared at one another in a tense silence before he said, "Umm… You're not Kirito."

"And you're not a member of my party," I said tersely. "How'd you find us? This place was supposed to be a secret."

"Got a message from Kirito saying that he'd be based here tonight if I needed him," the other man said carefully. "I'm Klein- who're you?"

The name clicked in my head, and I remembered where I had seen him before. "Klein," I repeated as I lowered my sword. "You were there with Kirito the day of the launch, right? My name is Mataras, if that helps."

"Mata- oh, right!" he grinned as he visibly relaxed. "You all formed a party with those two girls, right? How's that going?"

"We got a new member," I told him as I put away my blade. "She helped us beat the floor one boss."

"Ooh, is she hot?" Klein asked with a wink.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," I said, rolling my eyes. "What are you doing here? I thought you had other friends that you wanted to work with."

"Oh yeah, we already formed a guild," he grinned as he gave me a thumbs-up sign. "We're called Fuurinkazan. Fast as the wind, fierce as the fire, steady as the earth, and swift as the water!"

"…You're joking, right?" I asked him flatly.

"Hey!" he said, offended. "It's a cool name!"

"Sure, if you're five," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Man that's cold!" Klein sulked. "Where's Kirito? He'd think that it's cool…"

"Dunno," I shrugged. "I was actually about to head out to find my team."

"Needed some alone time, huh?" Klein asked, dropping his goofy attitude. "I can get that. Well, I kinda need to get going back to my guys- we're going late-night hunting. Less people farming for the mobs, ya know?"

"Yeah, good call," I nodded. "We needed the day off, so we're taking it easy. I'll let Kirito know that you stopped by, though."

"Oh, that's right!" Klein exclaimed. "I just remembered why I'm here in the first place! Someone's looking for Kirito."

"We have a lot of those," I said sourly. Before he could ask, I added, "Let's just say that we won the fight against the boss, but lost to the masses."

"Uh…" he said blankly.

"Look, my point is that if someone is looking for us, it's probably not a good thing," I sighed. "Whoever it is can get lost."

"Look bro, I get it," Klein said, his brow furrowing a little. "You've had a long day, but the kid I came here for doesn't look like trouble. She honestly looks pretty shook up about something. Said she needed to see Kirito ASAP. I actually found her just wandering the Town of Beginnings asking if anybody knew him. Figured I'd try to lend a hand to the poor thing."

"Why does she need to see him?" I prompted.

"She says that she had something she needed to ask him," he shrugged. "Said it was private."

"She…" I muttered, trying to think of who it could be. Thus far, the only female players that we had spent any deal of time with were Asuna, Rivka, and Saphira. Only about one in ten players were female, and not many of them were on the front lines. "Did you get a name?" I asked him.

"She said her name was Kiriha," Klein said. "Mean anything to ya?"

"Kiriha?" I repeated, the name unfamiliar to me. Still, it felt like I had heard it anyway, though I was certain I hadn't encountered anyone by that name. I knew my sister, Rivka, PoH, Klein, Argo, Asuna, and Kirito. _Wait a second…_ Something was there, I was certain.

"Ki…ri…to…" I mumbled. "Kiri… Kirito… Kiri- ha…?" My eyes widened and I nearly shouted, " _Kiriha?!_ "

"Whoa, what's up?!" Klein asked with mixed amounts of alarm and concern.

His alarm only grew as I grabbed him by his vest and shouted, " _Where is this kid?!_ "

* * *

After convincing me to let go of him, he agreed to go fetch the girl while I sent a message to the others telling them to come meet me back at the room. I checked the girls' room to see if they were still there, but apparently they had all decided to go get dinner ahead of me.

 _The timing of this could not be any worse,_ I fumed as I paced back and forth in my room. I paused as I considered, _Though maybe if I'm wrong…_

"Hey, Mataras?" Klein's voice came in through the door. "I got the kid here with me."

I bolted to the door and flung it wide open to be confronted by a nightmare beyond my own mind's capability to conceive. Standing in the doorway with Klein, timid and frightened by all appearances, was Suguha Kirigaya. Her eyes went a little wide as she saw me, and she took a half-step back in surprise.

Her appearance was as it was back in the real world, minus the finer details that the avatar data could not replicate, just like the rest of us. She was dressed in standard floor one gear with dark green as her color of choice, complete with a one-handed sword strapped to her hip.

This was about where I lost it.

* * *

Mid-way through my rant, Klein stepped in between us and grabbed me by the shoulders as he yelled, "Get it together, man! What is going on with you today?!"

"That's Kirito's little sister!" I sputtered furiously, trying to shake him off with no success. Apparently he had invested more points into his strength stat than I had. "I wanna know what the hell she's doing here! Why is she here?! Why are you here?!" I aimed the last part at the girl herself, who was currently huddled in a corner, crying. "Say something!" I demanded.

"Dude, you need to _get a grip_ ," Klein said, shaking me by my shoulders a little more forcefully. "You're not gonna get any answers like that."

"But she shouldn't be here!" I protested. "She _can't_ be here! She didn't dive in with us on the day of the launch, she went to kendo practice!" Even in my half-raging, half-panicked mind frame, I remembered my final day in the outside world clearly. Suguha had specifically told me that she was headed to her martial arts practice that fateful afternoon. Besides that, she didn't even own a NerveGear- she hated video games!

"What's all the noise about?" Kirito's voice broke in, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of Klein half-throttling me. In his shock, he failed to notice the younger girl that was curled up in the corner while Rivka, Asuna, and Saphira came in behind him.

"Brother, did you seriously pick a fight while we were out?" Saphira asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" I shouted. "Get him off of me!"

"Klein?" Kirito asked.

"Hey, I just brought a kid over that said they were looking for you, and Mataras here just loses his crap soon as he sees her," Klein said as he continued to hold me at arm's length. "I'm tryin' to keep him reasonable."

"I am perfectly reasonable!" I protested, but my pleas went unnoticed.

"Wait, who wanted to see me?" Kirito frowned. "Was it a girl named Argo?"

"B-Brother?" a shaking voice said from the corner as the speaker slowly began to uncurl from the fetal position. "I-Is that you…?" The others turned around to see Suguha looking up at her brother with a great deal of apprehension, maybe a bit of fear.

Kirito's mouth dropped so fast it was a wonder it didn't fall off of his face. "S-Sugu?!" he managed to squawk. "Wha-?!"

"That's what I asked!" I shouted.

"You, shut up," Saphira said sternly. "Kirito, how did this happen?"

"Wait, who is this?" Asuna asked, thoroughly confused.

"Kirito's kid sister," Rivka explained. "But she didn't dive in on the day of the launch, which means she shouldn't be here…" They all stared at the girl, who began to shrink back into her shell.

Before she could completely curl back up though, Saphira knelt beside her and placed a soothing hand on her shoulder, saying, "Hey, it's okay. Brother didn't mean to scare you- he just doesn't do well with surprises. We're all just a little… shocked to see you here."

"Surprises?!" I said, outraged. "This is like a proverbial atom bomb being dropped in our living room! She's playing with fire, coming here! What gives?!"

"Klein, throw him out the window if he doesn't stop making a scene," Rivka said dryly.

"Not necessary!" I protested, immediately ceasing my struggles.

"Good," Rivka said. "Now shut up while Kirito gets all of this sorted."

"Me?!" he asked. "Why do I have to-?!"

"Your sister, dude," I said. I thought it was pretty obvious.

"Shut up or it's the window," Rivka said as she clicked her fingers at me.

"Shutting up."

There was a very long, very uncomfortable silence between our group. It was eventually broken by Kirito kneeling in front of his sister to meet her on eye level. "Sugu…" he said quietly. "Why did you come here?"

"I… I…" she sniffled. "I couldn't…" She buried her face back in her knees, trying to hide from our stares.

"You know, I think I'm gonna go…" Klein said uncomfortably. "Someone take over Mataras here?"

"Oei," I growled. "I'm not a dog to be kept on a leash."

"Then don't behave like one," Asuna said as she rolled her eyes at me.

"Thanks for your help, Mister Klein, but I think we'll be fine now," Saphira said as she looked up at the lanky man. "Go on and get back to your team."

"Thanks," he said with evident relief as he headed out the door. Once he let go of me, the others eyed me warily, wondering if I was going to go off again. Deciding not give them the satisfaction, I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender and went to sit on one of the beds.

Turning his attention back to the newcomer, Kirito frowned a bit as he hesitantly put a hand on her knee and repeated his question. "Sugu, what are you doing here? I know you didn't come in on the day of the launch."

"M-Mom and Dad were afraid that you w-wouldn't make it," she sniffed, wiping at her eyes. "And a guy that's b-been monitoring the players said that y-you were on the front lines of the g-game… risking your life…"

"Hold on, they have a way to monitor us?" Asuna said, eyes widening. "Does that mean we can get messages out?"

"I doubt it," Kirito shook his head, turning slightly to look up at our teammate. "The most they can probably tell from the data available to them is where we are in the game. If they mess with anything deeper than surface level intel, we could all end up getting fried."

"Y-Yeah…" Suguha nodded slowly. "That's what the guy told us."

That sent a nice chill down my spine. "So in other words, forget any early logouts," I said dryly.

"We kinda already knew that, but this pretty much cements the theory," Rivka frowned. "But that just further begs Kirito's question; why come in here if there's virtually no way out?" The last part was aimed at the younger Kirigaya.

"I wanted to see my big brother…" Suguha said miserably. "I needed to ask him something…"

"And it couldn't wait?" I said in disbelief. "What could possibly be so important tha-"

"Mom and Dad told me that he's not really my brother," she said softly. Meeting Kirito's eyes, which had widened considerably as he nearly fell over backwards in shock, she asked, "Is it true? You and I…?"

"Uh…" he said awkwardly as we all turned our gaze to him. Even to the girls and myself, this was news, so our curiosity was naturally piqued. Looking at the floor, he mumbled, "Yeah… it's true."

"Wait, what?!" I gaped. "How?! You two definitely look like siblings!"

"Well, it's not like we're not related at all!" he said defensively. "My parents died when I was a baby, all right? So my mom's sister and my uncle took me in. The only reason I knew is because I was bored one time and figured out how to get into the citizen's registry…"

"Wait, you hacked the registry system because you were _bored?_ " I sputtered. This day was getting crazier by the minute.

"I don't think that's main issue right now…" Saphira said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, the main issue is that she came in here, risking her life in the process, just to hear it from him?!" I objected as I pointed a finger at Kirito. "I'm sorry, but what kind of logic is that?" Suguha ducked her head again while the others gave me disapproving looks.

"It obviously wasn't a logical decision, it was based on emotion," Rivka reprimanded me. "Stop giving her such a hard time- this day's obviously been upsetting enough as it is. She doesn't need this from you."

"Okay, okay!" I said, "I get it!" Letting out a long sigh, I muttered, "This is way too much to deal with in one day."

"I actually agree with that," Kirito sighed as he looked at Suguha with pity. "I know how she feels, though… When I found out the truth, I went up to our parents and demanded to know the whole story… I was only ten, but they told me everything. After that, I just felt disconnected from all of them. So I dove into the virtual world, where I felt like I could fit in with all the other nobodies in the world. It didn't matter who you were IRL, because you could be someone else in here. I didn't have to be the outcast."

"Hey you're not an outcast," Saphira said kindly. "You've got us now. Not to mention a mom and dad waiting for you back home that I'm sure love you just as much as if you were really their son by birth. Plus a sister that was willing to risk her life just to come see you." She added the last part with a gentle pat on Suguha's back.

Kirito just looked down, warring emotions flitting across his face.

"There's something I wanna know…" Rivka frowned. "How'd you know Kirito's handle?"

"The guy that told us about where he was in here let us know what it was," the younger girl said quietly. "I guess I should've known… It's a play on his real name." She seemed to know not to use his real name in the virtual world, even though most of us present already knew it.

"Is that why you chose 'Kiriha?" I inquired. She nodded once to confirm my guess. "Guess it's a family thing…" I muttered.

"Well, since you're here, I suppose you know that there's no way out except to beat the game, right?" Rivka sighed.

"Yeah," Suguha sniffed, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "I know…"

"Now I've got a question…" Asuna said with a slight frown. "How'd she come in here? I'd have thought that all the NerveGears not being used would've been recalled if not destroyed."

"Good point," I muttered. Aiming my own question directly at the girl, I said, "Hey. Where'd you get a NerveGear to get in?"

"A friend of mine had one," she answered, still wiping at her face. "She was supposed to play on the day of the launch, but she got grounded for not doing her schoolwork. So before it was recalled, I took it and her game cartridge from her house so that I could come in here…"

"Do you have a plan for what you want to do now that you're here?" Kirito asked her after yet another uncomfortable silence. "Are you gonna stay back at the Town of Beginnings?"

"Nu-uh," she shook her head. Bringing her dark blue eyes to bore straight into Kirito's, she said, "I wasn't sure what to do once I found you… But now I know- I'm gonna join you on the front lines of the game."

"Wha-?!" he yelped. "That's too dangerous! You're only level one, you have no idea how to play, and you wanna join up with us?! You could get killed out there!"

"So could you!" she shot back, tears pooling in her eyes. "You think I don't know what could happen?! I know I could die, but I didn't come in here just to find you so that you could avoid me again!" Her words had a visible effect on him, for he flinched as if he had been struck. "I want my big brother back!" Suguha shouted, breaking down into a fit of sobs once again.

Based on what I had been told by Saphira, Suguha and Kazuto had been very close when they were young, but in recent years, he had become very distant from his family, especially his sister. Obviously, Suguha did not want this pattern of behavior to continue, especially after all that she had risked.

"I…" he mumbled. Strangely, he looked over at me as if to ask what I thought about the situation.

Normally, he was in charge of managing the group's affairs, but I realized that in this state of mind, he was too emotionally conflicted to make any clear decisions. After a moment of forcing myself to assume a more reasonable train of thought, my shoulders sagged as I said, "This is obviously not the healthiest way for a reunion to happen, but family should always be the top priority… We can make it work, I think."

Kirito sighed to himself and nodded his assent- not that he could really refuse, I thought.

Turning to Rivka, I said, "If she's going to be coming with us, the first thing we need to do is get her stats up to level with ours. Obviously in terms of earning EXP, that's gonna take a while, but if we can get her some decent gear, she won't be completely outclassed by the mobs up here. Think you can handle getting some equipment for her?"

"Yeah, I'll see if I can find something in the town's market," she nodded.

"Good," I murmured. "She'll need a better weapon than the toothpicks we started out with…" Opening my menu to peruse my collection, I said to Kirito, "Hey boss? Do you know if there are any quests on this floor that would suit a beginner?"

"As long as we're all together, yeah," he nodded as he stood up. "Once she's officially in our party, the EXP should go around evenly. For us, it'll mean smaller gains, but she'll catch up a lot faster that way."

"Will it stagger our progress overmuch?" I asked, concerned.

"Well, at first, yeah," he admitted. "But once she's at least level three, we can start doing our farming in groups of three so we can accomplish quests at twice the rate, which will let us get back to our original pace, if not surpass it."

"All right, seems like a worthwhile investment," I muttered. "Are we missing anything?"

"Once we get her equipped with higher-level gear, she should be okay to start with us in the morning," Saphira said as she helped Suguha to her feet. Addressing the other girl, she asked, "You gonna be okay?"

"I… I think so," she sniffed, her eyes finally beginning to dry.

"Here," I said as I stood up, a new sword in my hand. It was plain-looking, with a standard silver blade and black handle, but there was a dime-sized emerald in the pommel. "This'll boost your speed and health points a moderate amount." I extended the weapon to her, hilt first so that she could grasp it properly.

"Thanks," she said quietly. Looking at me, she asked, "Uh…? What's your name in here? I know we're not supposed to use our real names."

"Mataras," I answered. Gesturing to each person in turn, I added, "Rivka, Saphira, and Asuna. Guess I should apologize for using your name…"

"It's okay," she shook her head. "I know that me coming here was a big shock for all of you."

"Since when did you have that thing, Mataras?" Rivka asked as she eyed the blade in Suguha's hand. "That's not a half-bad sword, even for this floor."

"I think it dropped from one of the monsters that we were fighting in the forest on our way to Illfang's lair," I shrugged. "It might need some maintenance, but I hadn't taken a good look at it until now."

"We'll need to move to the next town soon, if that's the case," Kirito frowned as Suguha gingerly accepted the blade from my hand. "This town doesn't have a blacksmith."

"Bugger," I scowled. "Ach, we'll make it to the next place soon enough. Our gear should last until then, right Kirito?"

"Yeah," he affirmed. "For now though, I think we could all do with some sleep." Even as he said it, I became aware of just how tired I was. My eyelids began to droop, and I let out a yawn while rubbing my brow.

"I heard that," I mumbled. "We can deal with the particulars of this whole mess tomorrow."

"Um, actually…" Suguha said, her tone uncertain. "There's… one more thing I should tell you…"

"Oh for the love of-" I groaned. "What could it possibly be now? Does Kirito have a long-lost sibling or something?"

"Mataras…" Saphira said warningly.

"Hey, given everything else, it seems reasonable to me," I said indignantly.

"Ignore him, he gets cranky when it's past his bedtime," Rivka said dismissively. "What's up?"

"Well, this actually has to do with Mataras, and Saphira…" she said, her expression a pained one.

"Wait, what?" I frowned. I certainly hadn't been expecting the conversation to shift towards my sister and I. Then again, nothing about this conversation so far had been anticipated by anyone present.

"What is it?" Saphira asked in a kinder tone than mine. A thought seemed to cross her mind, for she asked, "Are our parents handling this whole thing okay?"

"Uh…" Suguha winced. "That's actually the other reason I came here…"

"Huh?!" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Our parents asked you to come in here?"

"No!" she said a little sharply, hugging herself as if to ward off a chill. "That's not… Look, this is hard enough as it is, so just let me say it!"

"Then say it," I snapped. "Stop beating around the bush and-"

"They died yesterday," she said, her words striking like hammer blows.

"…What?" I asked, feeling very light-headed.

"Su- Suguha-chan…" Saphira said, her eyes wide as she took a half-step back while her hand went up to her throat in an involuntary motion. "Y-You're kidding, right? Mom and Dad…?"

"There was a car accident," she said, her gaze falling to the floor again. "It was terrible… The driver was texting when he ran a red light… Uh… No one in either car survived."

I could feel my world crumbling around me as she spoke, each word seeming to put another crack in the pattern that made up our reality. "But…" I said, hoarsely. "No, that… That- This- I-"

Against my will, my mind flew back again to our last day of freedom…

* * *

"You remembered to pack your lunch?" my mother asked as I grabbed my school bag from the kitchen table. She was writing in her journal, an open bible next to her pen hand.

"And Victoria's," I grinned. "I'm not leaving anything to chance today."

"I still don't see why you two like those stupid things so much," she said with a roll of her eyes as she looked up from her study. "You could be spending time doing things that will actually make a difference in the real world… You know, reality?"

"Hey, it _is_ reality," I said cheekily. "Just a different kind. Besides, according to my last report card, I'm going to be a rather productive individual for society."

"And according to the rules of this house, you're not going to be on that thing after five o'clock," she said with an arched eyebrow. Raising her voice a little, she called up the stairs, "You hear that, young lady?"

"Loud and clear!" Victoria said as she bounded the stairs to come to a stop in the living room. "We'll be sure to do our schoolwork right after, promise."

"You better, or that things gets taken away for the next two weeks," my mom said as she closed her journal. "All right, I'll see you two later this afternoon."

"Gonna have lunch with Dad today?" I asked as I bent over by the door to begin putting on my shoes.

"Yes, he said he might be working late tonight, so I figured I'd go see him while he has time," she nodded. "Anything you need from the grocery store?"

"Apples," I said immediately. "We just ran out."

"I could use some more peanut butter," Victoria grinned as she elbowed me. " _Someone_ keeps eating it right out of the jar."

"I can neither confirm nor deny these accusations," I shot back.

"Okay, you two," our mom said. "Just don't kill each other on the way to school, all right?"

"No promises," we said simultaneously, followed by a high-five.

"Get out of here," our mother grinned. "You're gonna be late if you don't get going."

"Kay, see you later," I said as I went to hold the door open for Victoria. "Love you, Mom."

"Yeah, love you!" Victoria said as she walked out the front with a good-bye wave.

"Love you too, have a good day!" she called before I shut the door.

* * *

 _I'll never see them again…_ I thought, my eyes stinging as my vision blurred. _Not in this lifetime, anyway…_ The knowledge that I would see them on the other side of eternity was of little comfort to me as I sat on the ground and began to rock back and forth, trying to ignore the pain in my chest without success.

I was vaguely aware of Rivka trying to tell me something, but the words didn't register in my head. It was all a blur, as if I were looking at my own existence through a pair of faulty glasses. The only thing that was clear was the pain.

The burning, freezing, ripping, piercing, pain. It pounded through my body like a drum, smothered my conscious thought like an oppressive blanket, draining me of the will to even acknowledge the others that were around me.

My family had been ripped in half, and it was a pain beyond pain.

 _Everything waiting for me on the other side is gone…_

* * *

It was the muffled sound of someone crying that broke through the thick fog of agony surrounding my consciousness. Looking up from my huddled position, I saw something that had only ever occurred once before.

Victoria was crying from sadness- an occurrence that had not taken place since the day that I found her eye bruised, a product born from a bully's fist. The sight had filled me with white-hot fury, the flames only abating when I had crushed her tormentors under my foot.

I felt a similar anger beginning to build up, but another realization quickly halted its progress, giving light to another aspect of the situation. _It's not about what I've lost_ , I realized. _It's all about her now… I'm the only thing that she has left to go back to when we go home._

It was a sobering thought, but I was now faced with the reality that I was her sole protector and provider in both worlds. With our parents gone, the duty fell to me as the eldest son to care for my remaining family. No longer could I show weakness or allow doubt to dissuade me in my actions, for Victoria's sake alone.

The thought nearly crushed me where I sat, but somehow I found the strength to stand and dash my eyes until they were dry. _No more tears,_ I promised myself. Rivka went to say something, but I held up a hand to indicate that I wanted silence. Pity was the last thing I needed right now, lest I risk breaking down again.

I moved swiftly to kneel beside Saphira and scoop her up in my arms, whereupon she started crying even more uncontrollably. Cradling her in my grip, I turned to the others and said in a dull tone, "We all need some sleep- staying up is only going to drive us ragged."

"But-"

"Not now, Kirito," I said with a shake of my head as I moved to the door. "I'll put her to bed so we can get rested up for tomorrow. We're going to have a long day ahead of us." With that, I left the room.

* * *

She fell asleep surprisingly quickly after I lay her on one of the two beds in the girl's room. I briefly recalled that she was going to sleep on the couch, but given the current circumstances, I figured that the others could forgive her for taking the better arrangement.

Before she fell asleep, I hummed a quiet tune that eventually turned into words, a song that I hoped would give her some peace until the morning.

 _I am…_

 _The Maker of the heavens, I am_

 _The bright and morning Star, I am_

 _The Breath of all creation, who always was…_

 _And is to come_

 _I am_

 _The One who walked on water, I am_

 _The One who calmed the seas, I am_

 _The miracles and wonder, so come and see…_

 _Follow me…_

 _And you will know…_

 _That I am_

 _The Fount of living water, the Risen Son of Man_

 _The Healer of the broken_

 _And when you cry, I am_

 _Your Savior and Redeemer, from all the sin of man_

 _The Author and Perfector, Beginning and the End_

 _Yes I am…_

As the notes faded from my mouth, I noticed that her breathing had become deep and even, and her tears had ceased flowing. Breathing a sigh of relief, I stood up as quietly as I could manage before pulling the covers up over her shoulders and turning away to shut off the lights in the room. "Good night, Sis," I murmured.

* * *

Walking out into the short hall between the two rooms, I found that the others were all waiting just outside Kirito and my room. I gave Asuna and Rivka a brief look before I jerked my head toward the door without a word.

As I moved between them, I felt someone stop me with a hand on my shoulder, the grip a familiar one. "We'll be here for you," Rivka said somberly.

"I know," I replied without emotion. "But I don't need you to be. If anyone needs support, it's Saphira."

"You're trying to take on this alone when you don't need to," Asuna said, a frown in her voice. "If you're hurting, you should let your friends help you."

"That's a luxury I can no longer afford," I said with a shake of my head. "And I'll not discuss this any further. Good night." Shrugging off Rivka's hand, I went into my room and headed for the couch.

Over my shoulder, I added, "Su- Sorry, Kiriha can take my bed."

"No, I-"

"Then sleep on the floor," I said, my voice cracking like a whip. "Either way, I'm taking the couch." With that, I unequipped my sword from my back and lay on the couch, eyes closed. I heard the door shut, but no one entering, so I supposed that they were going to talk for a few moments before they would retire for the night.

It didn't matter to me. Before too long, sleep claimed my exhausted, drained mind, and I fell deep into the darkness.

* * *

"I'm so sorry about all of this," Kiriha said, eyes downcast. "I wish I hadn't come in here now… I've just made everyone's lives harder." Rivka had just shut the door to their room as to avoid disturbing Saphira's rest.

"Well, maybe…" Kirito said as he scratched his head. "But in a weird way, I'm glad to see you here, Sugu. Watching Mataras and Saphira, I guess I got a little jealous sometimes. Part of me wanted to have a close relationship like they have. Since you're here, maybe we can try to work toward being like how used to…?"

"I'd… I'd really like that," she said, smiling a bit for the first time since she had arrived in Aincrad.

"I hate to be that person…" Asuna said with a slight wince. "But what should we do about Mataras and Saphira? Are they even going to be able to keep going after this?"

"Mataras will," Rivka said immediately as she glanced at his bedroom door. "You can bet on that."

"What makes you say so?" Kirito inquired.

"He loves Saphira more than anything in the world," she answered. "So he'll keep going for her sake if nothing else. He won't let this game beat him because he wants to see her freed. Even this isn't going to stop him- if anything, he's going to go on to draw strength from it, let it redouble his determination to make it home."

"Are you sure?" Kiriha asked doubtfully.

"I've known him since we were little," Rivka nodded firmly. "He's going to be hurting for a long time, of course. But if there's one thing I've learned about those two, it's that he'd do anything to see her happy."

"At what cost to himself, though?" Asuna frowned.

"Doesn't matter to him," Rivka shook her head. "Don't bother trying to talk him into taking a breather, either. He's too stubborn to listen to anybody once he's set on something. Either he'll succeed through tenacity, or he'll fail before he picks himself back up again."

"Sounds like you admire him," Kirito said.

"I do," she nodded with a slight grin, despite the circumstances. "It can be a problem sometimes, but his stubbornness is also what gives him so much resolve."

"Guess we'll have to take your word for it," Asuna said. "Still sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, though."

"After what he's been through- what he's going through- I think we should be able to forgive him if he breaks down at some point," Rivka replied. "He said he doesn't need us to be there for him right now, but be ready just in case."

"Got it," Kirito nodded. "Though right now, I think we should follow his example and get some rest. My brain's totally fried right now."

"Yeah, same here," Kiriha yawned.

"Kay, good night you guys," Rivka said with a slight wave of her hand. "See you in the morning."

* * *

The next day, I woke up before everyone else, even before my alarm could go off. Swinging my feet out onto the floor, I got up without a sound and left the room. Once I was in the hallway, I equipped my sword and headed out into the plains, alone.

Since it was nearly dawn, all of the late-night hunters were already back in town for some rest. Not to mention that most of the remaining population was still back on floor one, and still sleeping, which made this the prime time for hunting field monsters.

Pulling two knives from my storage, I stashed them in my belt, just in case. _I'm eventually going to need proper sheathes for these things_ , I thought to myself, even as I exited the town's safe zone.

I hadn't made it a hundred yards into the plains when a hulking, axe-wielding bull-type monster noticed me. Letting out a roar that shattered the morning silence, it charged at me, weapon already glowing with an activated sword skill.

 _You've robbed us of our freedom,_ I thought as I drew my blade from my back. _Took away the few days we could have spent with our parents before they died._ The sword lit up with an orange flame, even as I assumed a ready stance. _So hear me well, Aincrad…_

"I'm going to tear this world asunder for everything you've taken," I growled. "And then…" The bull swung. I ducked. The next instant, the monster had three gash marks going across its chest before it disintegrated. "I'll personally arrange a meeting with your Maker, Kayaba."

* * *

 **Kirito: Wait just a second... Was that a segment I saw that was not in first person?**

 **Mataras: Yeah, so? I never said that the entire story was going to be first person.**

 **Asuna: Will we get any other first person perspectives from the other characters?**

 **Mataras: Nah, that's reserved for me. And before you ask, yes it is a combination playing favorites, along with me wanting to set aside that particular style for the main character only.**

 **Saphira: Fair enough. So what's next on your crazy schedule?**

 **Mataras: Should be putting out some chapters for Star and Fire Swords, plus Inheritance sometime this week.**

 **Kirito: What about Legacy and this story?**

 **Mataras: Unknown. It depends not only on my schedule, but that of two others as well. So I'll get to it when we get to it.**

 **Rivka: Until next time, we wish all of you good times and health!**

 **Kiriha: Next time- The Alliance.**

* * *

 **Closing Song: I am (by Mark Schultz)**


	6. An Alliance

**A/N: Since I have been keeping you waiting for more than long enough, I'll let the omake do the explaining after you've finished reading this chapter- I think you'll find it to be a good one.**

 **Credit for characters Angel and Ion goes to Marcus Cersy a.k.a. Ion Gree.**

 **Opening Song: Let Me Try (by Nathan Sharp)**

* * *

 _Though the world may say  
We're nothing more than liars  
I know much better_

* * *

An Alliance

"How long are we going to wait here?" I asked impatiently as I leaned back against the stone wall of the cave we had come into.

We were at the entrance to the lair of the second floor boss, or in this case, bosses. Kirito had told us that while Baran the General Taurus was the boss that we needed to defeat in order to advance, it had a supporting sub-boss instead of disposable minions called Nato the Colonel Taurus that would make life very difficult for all of us when it came time to take up arms.

'We' consisted of myself, Saphira, Asuna, Kiriha, Rivka, and Kirito. The gate itself looked nearly identical to the one that had led into Illfang's throne room, but Kirito had also told us that the interior of the room would be very different for each boss.

"We're good, but we're not good enough to take on a floor boss without help from the rest of the assault team," Kirito replied. "Especially in a situation like this one."

"We took out the Bulbous Bow on our own," I countered. "That thing was a boss, right?" I was referring to the field boss that had originally obstructed the path to the last town before the labyrinth of this floor.

"That was a Named Monster, not a floor boss," Kirito argued.

"Yeah, but then Lind and Kibaou were both pretty mad about us getting ahead of them," Rivka added. "Mataras might have a point, you know. They're just as likely to knife us as they are to ally with us- maybe even both." Right now, the two men that Rivka had just mentioned were leading some of the more prominent parties in SAO's assault team. Both Kibaou and Lind had picked up the pieces of the assault party, though the latter of the two had retained more of Diavel's personal party in his retinue.

Lind was actually the first person to accuse Kirito of holding out on the raid group, and continued on to be the most vocal about beaters being responsible for the situation of the common populace. Even Kibaou was less vocal about his distaste- though that might have had something to do with my thinly veiled threats during our little shouting match, now that I thought about it.

Lind had- rather ironically- gone on to model himself after Diavel in every way that he could as he lead his new team through the front lines. The way that Lind dressed was nearly identical to the former commander- he even dyed his hair and colored his eyes blue! The man was more than slightly obsessed, I thought.

"Neither one of them are very reasonable," Saphira said, throwing in her two cents. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to start getting along with them. After all, we're the ones that are going to be clearing the game."

"Maybe we should just let them have this one?" Kiriha suggested. "If they hate all you that much, why should we even come here to help them?"

"Because whether they like it or not, they need us," I said shortly. "We've got several of the top players in the game on our team, not to mention my Dragon Blood. Plus, your level is going to get a serious boost from this little incursion. If any of us needs to be a part of this, it's you." She flinched a little at my words, and I realized that they might have been too harsh. "Sorry," I said, making an effort to soften my tone. "I didn't mean that to sound like an insult."

"It's okay," she shrugged. "You're right anyways."

"Don't tell him that, it'll go to his head," Rivka told the younger girl.

"I'll take credit where it's due," I sniffed. "However, the truth is that none of us would be here without your brother, Kiriha. Well, maybe Asuna would be."

"You kiddin' me?" Saphira grinned. "She made it a full month in this game as a solo, and she wasn't even a beta tester. That's pretty awesome, if you ask me."

I watched my sister carefully as she spoke, noticing how her smile did not quite reach her eyes, and how her shoulders stayed in a slightly lowered position. In her eyes I did not see the sparkle of joy that came from the love of life itself. To the others, she appeared to be doing just fine, but I knew better. Her once-vibrant spirit had been crushed.

If only I knew how to restore it, I thought as the others continued to talk amongst themselves. What I wouldn't give to see her heart lift one more time…

* * *

It had been about a week and a half since the news of our parent's deaths had reached us. During that time, we had moved quickly across the second floor of Aincrad, the confidence of the front lines swelling immensely after the defeat of Illfang the Kobold Lord.

Our team's personal progress had initially been somewhat slowed by the late arrival of Kirito's kid sister, but thanks to some sleepless nights and- a certain info broker that made more col from us than she had any right to- we managed to get Kiriha up to level five after the defeat of the Bulbous Bow monster. She was still three levels below the rest of us, but she was well enough in terms of stats that she didn't have to worry about an ox monster cutting her in half the minute she stepped into a field.

The younger Kirigaya had actually surprised all of us by how quickly she adapted to the sword skill system, Kirito more than any of us. I suppose it went to show how little he had actually paid attention to the girl, but at the same time, it was kind of cool to see them finally connecting as siblings ought. He had quickly realized how hard she was willing to work to catch up with the rest of us, so he took to going on quests with it being just the two of them, both to help her level up faster, and so that they would have time to reconnect properly.

Rivka and Asuna had taken to working together, though more because they were the outliers than any real desire to become close friends. They got along very well, and their coordination as comrades-in-arms was very noteworthy, but it wasn't like they were becoming best friends either. Theirs' was a camaraderie, nothing more, nothing less.

I suppose since everything else seemed to be working out so far, Saphira was my only real concern right now. The day after we learned about our parents, we had set out for the next town, but she was too mentally drained to even try to walk. The others had said that we could wait another day, but I refused, saying that the sooner we regained a routine of some kind, the better it would be for the both of us. So I carried her the whole way to the next town on my back, never pausing to let someone else carry her or give me a rest. It felt like the least I could to reinforce in her mind the fact that she could depend on me, even through this.

 _I'll manage the weight,_ I had thought as we trekked across the open plains. _I have to._

* * *

"They're coming," Rivka said, standing up abruptly. A moment later, the sounds of footsteps could be heard echoing through the tunnel, along with lowered voices and the clanking of weapons and armor.

A thrill went through me as we all stood up, ready to meet our accusers face-to-face for the first time since the first floor boss fight. Asuna, Rivka, and Kiriha were visibly tensed up from the anticipation, but Kirito and Saphira appeared relaxed enough. _Time to see if wiser heads will prevail_ , I thought as the voices drew closer. _Here's to hoping I can keep this temper of mine in check…_

A few minutes later, they came into view. They were a group made up of what looked like four or five parties, perhaps thirty players in total. At their head, unsurprisingly, were Kibaou and Lind. My fist clenched on reflex, but I forced myself to remain still and calm while they came into speaking distance.

The two men held up their hands for the others to halt with stony expressions once they were about ten feet away from us. "What do you beaters want?" Lind asked sharply.

"To beat the boss, same as last time," Kirito replied quietly. "We're willing to form an alliance with you guys in order to see this thing taken down without anyone getting killed."

"That's rich," Kibaou snorted. "Cos the way I remember the last time we teamed up, our leader ended up dying on your watch." There were several growls of agreement from the majority of the group, some of the players even cracking their knuckles at us.

"Kirito tried to give him a health potion, but the idiot wouldn't accept it," Asuna said as she took a few steps forward to stand next to Kirito. "Diavel left the mess he made in our hands, and if Kirito and Mataras hadn't acted when they did, a lot of you wouldn't be here right now."

"We can handle this without cheating," Lind said stubbornly. "Just like Diavel, we'll show you that we can do this without your meddling!"

"Sorry, but didn't we just go over the fact that Diavel is no longer here, and we are?" I said before my better sense could intervene. "So if we're keeping score, I'm pretty sure that puts us over his capabilities." Saphira smacked herself in the face, letting out a small groan of disappointment.

"Y-You dare mock Diavel-sama?!" Kibaou sputtered. "How dare y-"

"Cool it, Kibaou," Lind said quickly while glaring daggers at me. "This guy wins by getting under our skin, you know that. Let's just get this boss fight done, show 'em how it's done. Then we'll see whose laughing."

"Do I look to be in a laughing mood?" I retorted flatly. "Also, 'Diavel-sama'? You sound like you need a good psychologist. He wasn't that great."

"Mataras…" Saphira and Rivka said warningly.

Lind was physically restraining Kibaou now, the latter player trying to draw his sword and run at me with it. "Stop it!" the other man grunted. "You go at him out here, that beater skill he's got will let him chop you into pieces!"

"Look, we didn't come here to fight," Kirito interjected in an effort to calm the situation. "We came here because we want the same thing- to beat the boss so we can get another step closer to home. Whatever grievances we have against each other can be put on hold until after this fight is over. Face it, even if we weren't beaters, you could do with another party- you have a smaller group than last time."

"We don't need more players, just the good ones," Kibaou spat at him.

"Who's better than a group of beaters?" Saphira asked with a raised eyebrow. "We beat the last boss. We know all the tricks. We got here before any of you did. Do I need to keep going?"

"How are we supposed to trust you after last time?!" one player towards the back called out, eliciting another round of rough agreements from the others. "You left us in the dark!"

"Look, everything that was in the guidebook was to the best of our knowledge," Kirito answered. "But Kayaba changed things up for the live release. We knew about the nodachi itself, and the skills Illfang could use, but not that he would have them, if you get what I mean."

"It doesn't matter what you mean!" Lind snapped. "We don't need your help! We don't _want_ your help! We can handle this on our own!"

Kirito went to reply, but I beat him to it. "Fine," I snapped, fed up with their brand of nonsense. "Go, fight the boss without us. Just don't come back crying when those two monsters kick your behinds into the next life."

"Two?" one player asked. "Two monsters? What do they mean by that?"

Saphira, Asuna, and my eyebrow shot up instantly. "Now who's keeping secrets?" Asuna asked before Lind or Kibaou could answer. "The guidebook even says what's what with this next boss."

"My bet is that these two numbskulls told the others not to bother paying attention to it, since it would be filled with 'beater propaganda' or something close to it," I volunteered as a guess. "For those of you that don't know, there's technically two bosses. Unlike Illfang, the boss Baran has one minion that's basically a named monster-strength Taurus called Nato."

The men began to mutter amongst themselves while Lind and Kibaou suddenly looked decidedly nervous. Either they hadn't read it either, or they had and were holding out on their men. Whichever one it was, things were possibly about to get rather ugly for them.

"Let's cut to the chase, now," Kirito said sharply, drawing everyone's attention back to himself. "We know how to plan for this raid- you clearly don't. Those are the facts. You wanna try your luck without us, be my guest. But if you want a real chance at seeing tomorrow, you'll get your heads out of your butts and act like adults."

I looked at him, a little surprised at his assertive stance. _He's been hanging around me too much_ , I decided.

It was the leader of another party that finally spoke up, one that we hadn't seen before. "Anything else about this boss fight you want to tell us?" he asked. The tone wasn't harsh, but it was still slightly guarded. I noticed that his health bar displayed the symbol for the Holy Dragon Alliance.

"Baran and Nato both have a special debuff skill called Numbing Detonation/Impact," Kirito immediately replied. "They're basically the same, except that Baran's got twice the reach. Get hit by the sparks the skill generates, and you're frozen for three seconds. Get hit again while you're stuck and it'll be the full-on paralysis effect." Several players winced at the news, especially the ones with shorter weapons.

Kirito wasn't done either. "Like the last boss, once it hits the red zone, it'll change its patterns drastically- both of them will enter a frenzy state and try to hit you with that skill every chance they get." He paused to gather his thoughts before adding, "Like any Taurus-type monster without a helmet, the weak spot is the horns- lances and axes are probably the best bet we have to stagger it with that."

"Yo," said a deep, familiar voice. "I can help with that."

"Agil!" Saphira said with a warm smile as the giant man shouldered his way forward. "Glad to see you!"

"I figured this ugly mug wouldn't be a bad sight compared to this crowd," the man grinned as he jerked a thumb at his face. "I got me and a couple of others, ready and willing to fight with ya." As he spoke a few other players moved up behind him, two in particular catching the eye of Kirito and the others.

"So you're the players that Agil never shuts up about," said a boy who looked to be about my age. He was average in height with raven locks and ice-blue eyes, an unusual combination. His clothing was a mix of black and blue with a white overcoat, and a rapier hung from his waist. "I'm Ion," he said as held out a hand for me to shake, which I did readily. The grip was strong, but not overpowering like most guys tried to be when they first met someone.

"Mataras," I replied as I released the hand. "So Agil roped you into this nonsense?"

"We volunteered," said a girl that came up next to Ion. She was a bit shorter than her companion with pretty blond hair and solemn gray eyes. She had opted for lighter armor with a purple shirt underneath a gray breastplate and a black combat skirt that matched her fingerless gloves and boots. On her back rested a spear, which would hopefully prove indispensable in the fight to come.

"Hi, I'm Angel," she said as she shook hands with my sister.

"Saphira, nice to meet you," she replied.

"Hey," said the man from the HDA. "Are we going on a boss raid or not?"

"Cool it," I snapped before I could stop myself. "If the fight against Illfang is anything to go by, not everything will be the same as in the beta. Some of the information Kirito just gave you may even be obsolete- still, it's all we have."

"What my brother is _trying_ to say," Saphira said before the other player could retort, "is that we need to be very careful, even if we do know the tricks it's got. We don't want a repeat of last time."

"Tell me something," Lind said, his eyes narrowed with disgust. "Now that we know what you know, why should we let you come along?"

"Cos you'll be going in without me," Agil tossed at him.

"And me," Ion added. "These guys have showed all their cards- this isn't the thanks they deserve."

"You'll be going without me, too," Angel added.

"And my party," said another player. It took me a moment, but I recognized the player that was speaking as one of the members of HDA, the group that we had shared a meal with not three weeks ago. "These guys did us a solid in the beginning. Time for us to make good on that." His group members nodded and muttered their approval- also players that I recognized.

Kibaou and Lind looked gutted. It would have been hard enough for them to complete the boss raid with everyone they had brought. Now faced with the prospect of losing the support of nearly one-quarter of their assembled fighting force, their prospects looked very grim without our support. I could see it in the eyes of the other players, too, and the mutterings that they were beginning to share amongst themselves.

"Look, it's real simple," Kirito said as he stepped up to address the small crowd again. "If we wanna get out of here sooner rather than later, we're going to have to work together- beggars can't be choosers. I dunno about you, but I got people waiting for me on the other side, so I'd rather do this thing ASAP."

That last point seemed to hit home with a lot of players. A general chorus of agreement began to form until Kibaou's face darkened and he growled out, "Fine. We'll do it your way, beaters."

"But this doesn't mean we forgive you for Diavel," Lind added pithily.

"We weren't asking," I replied coldly. _That actually could not have gone any better._

* * *

 **(Boss Fight Music: Liberators by Epic Score)**

Two hours later, I was not feeling quite so confident. "I get changing the boss' attack patterns like with Illfang!" I shouted as I leaped back to avoid being crushed by a hammer the size of an apartment. "But throwing in an extra boss altogether is just mean!"

I was referring to a brand-new monster that had just spawned in after we had defeated Baran. Truth be told, no one in the room had any idea that he was there until a breath attack hit more than a dozen players, and stunning seven of them, Kirito, Asuna, Lind, and Kibaou among them.

When we turned to confront this new threat, we were staggered by its size and appearance. It was even larger than Nato, with six horns atop its monstrous head, skin as dark as a squid's ink, legs the size of oak trees, and dark chain mail armor covering the lower half of its body. In the center of its head rested a silver crown, and above that crown and the horns read the name, 'Asterius the Taurus King'.

"Just when I was thinking this was going well!" Rivka shouted in dismay.

"You guys said there was only two of them!" Lind shouted angrily as he strained against the effects of the attack, but still found himself unable to move. I realized that he hadn't just been stunned, but hit with the far more lethal paralysis effect.

"We also said that there would be room for error!" I shouted back as I resigned myself to what I needed to do. Sheathing my sword with my right hand while grabbing at one of the knives I had stashed in my belt with my left, I wound my arm back in preparation to throw it, causing the flames of my Dragon Blood to dance across the short blade.

"Hold your positions!" Kirito shouted as he got to his feet, helping Asuna up quickly as he did. "Those of you that were on Baran, get ready for this new guy! Nato forces, keep at him until you can join us!"

"We'll handle it!" Agil grunted as he countered the other sub-boss' axe with his own. Even as he spoke, Angel and Ion were moving in to attack, both of them cool as ice.

Asterius was now readying himself to cleave Lind into thousands of pieces, so I flung my arm forward, and the knife went flying. The small weapon smacked into one of the horns, causing the boss to stumble backwards from the recoil effect.

"Press him!" I shouted as I darted forward into range of the deadly mace.

As I grabbed Lind under the shoulders to drag him away, he growled in an undertone, "This doesn't change anything, Beater."

"Don't push your luck," I snarled back. "I'm not as nice as my sister." Once he was at the minimum safe distance, I dropped him like a sack of potatoes and drew my sword to rejoin the battle.

"So, any idea what kind of attack patterns he'll use now that I've thoroughly pissed him off?" I wondered aloud as the rest of the party gathered relatively close to me. As if in response, Asterius bellowed at us while his hammer glowed green.

"Duck!" Kirito called as he grabbed Kiriha and tackled her to the ground. We hit the floor so fast that we would be picking virtual gravel out of our chins for a week. The monster hammer missed us by inches, but we couldn't rest yet.

"Now what?" Saphira asked as she held her sword up in a defensive position. "We don't know enough about this boss to beat him, do we?"

"Should we consider a retreat?" Kiriha asked worriedly. Kirito and I considered this for a minute. Maybe it _would_ be better to come back another day, when we had the proper intel to take on this new challenge. We hadn't lost anyone in this boss raid, so why chance it?

"She may be right," I finally said, keeping a wary eye on the boss' movements. "We were prepared to deal with Nato and Baran, not this beasty."

"Who d'ya think yer losing to?" asked a familiar voice. Several of us turned with surprise to see Argo standing among us, a nervous grin on her face as she held a dagger in reverse for combat. "You need intel ta beat this guy, and I'm just the gal to deliver it."

"What are- whoa!" Kirito yelped even as the boss swung at us again. This time, I held my ground by grabbing Saphira's sword with my left hand and crossing it over my own to lock blades with the monster hammer just inside the head and stop it in its tracks.

"Hrrgh…!" I grunted- the force of the blow felt like it had jarred my entire body all the way to the pit of my stomach and back again. "Argo…" I managed to get out as I pitted my strength against the boss' powerful muscles. "If you have intel on this monster… let's hear it!"

"Hey, I like that sword!" Saphira told me, though the alarm in her eyes betrayed the worry that she felt.

"Yeah, well if everyone is done staring like a bunch of slack-jawed idiots, I could _use some help_!" I snapped, still straining against the boss' strength stat. The fact that we were able to be in a deadlock at all meant that the additional weapon had boosted my STR stat to be equal with the boss. Still, I could hardly leave Saphira without a weapon.

"Go for the horns to stun it!" Argo shouted so that everyone could hear. "If his eyes light up, it means the breath attack is coming! It can use Numbing Detonation, but you'll know it's comin' cos he stomps his feet three times before he uses it!"

Shoving the hammer away from me, I leaped back and tossed Saphira her sword, which she caught swiftly before rushing forward and slicing at the boss' leg.

"What about when he hits the red zone?" Asuna asked.

"He's got a berserker state, yeah!" Argo replied, sensing the question before it was really asked. "He don't change his weapons, but his skin is gonna look like coals from a fireplace!"

"Well, at least we don't have to deal with another skill set this time," I muttered just loud enough for my sister to hear.

"What, the three raid bosses weren't bad enough?" she said with a wry grin.

"Fair point," I conceded.

"Quick question, though…" she said before we could leap back into the fray with the others.

"Is this really the time?" I asked, exasperated.

"Are you planning on… you know?" she inquired, a cheeky smile beginning to crawl its way across her face.

It took me a few seconds, but then I realized what she was implying, and I'm fairly certain that I paled- or flushed, it was almost impossible to tell without the actual sensation of blood moving through my face. "You know about that?" I asked in a slightly pitiful voice.

"I know about _all_ of it," she grinned. Despite my embarrassment at the subject matter, I couldn't help but notice that the smile still wasn't quite reaching her eyes.

"No…" I groaned.

"So you won't use it?" she teased me. "Cos this seems like the perfect time to let everyone know about it."

"Dammit, Sis, I was gonna look so cool, now I'm all self-conscious!" I complained.

"Mataras, we both know that you looking cool is gonna take a lot more than a unique sword skill," she quipped.

"Hey!" Kirito shouted as he hacked into Asterius' side. "Are you two having a private pep talk?! We need help!"

"Sorry!" we both shouted. Turning to her, I asked quickly, "How long have you known?"

"Since Tuesday," she answered. "How long has it been going on?"

"Day three," I muttered sourly. "Now let's get a move on, they need us!"

* * *

The rest of the boss fight took nearly another hour. Fortunately, once our forces took down Nato, there were no more monsters to be seen, enabling the entirety of our group to focus on taking down Asterius. This sped things up greatly, but the true floor boss was no pushover. It took every bit of our skill to avoid getting killed and strike back so that little by little, we whittled away at the Minotaur's health bars.

"Kirito," I said heavily as the boss' final health bar entered the yellow zone. "There's something I need to try right before his health gets into the red. If he goes berserk now, it might mean a whole lot of trouble for the party." He and I were in reserve for right now- Agil's team along with Kibaou's were taking turns tanking and stabbing at the boss, so this was probably the best time to bring up what I had in mind.

"What, does your skill let you do one-hit KO's now?" he grinned tiredly.

"No, but I've been… practicing something," I told him.

"Okay, what's up?" he asked, curious.

"A form of mental conditioning," I explained. "Something I learned from my sensei was that if you keep talking when you're in a dangerous situation, it keeps your brain moving. Eventually I figured out a form of self-hypnotism that helps me get in the fighting zone, for lack of a better term."

"So you can basically trick yourself into being a better fighter?" he summarized.

"Not exactly," I replied, my eyes still watching the boss closely. "When you fight, like any other action, it can become muscle memory because of the neural pathways in your brain being used so consistently. In here, I'd say that effect is amplified because of how the system connects to our minds. So by repeating certain phrases to myself while I train, I can hype myself up to the level of energy that my body is used to using via my subconscious, even if I'm dead tired."

"Okay, I think I get what you're saying…" Kirito said slowly. "But I feel like I'm gonna need an example to get a clear picture."

"I think I can arrange that," I said, noticing the boss' HP nearing the red zone at last. Gripping my sword, the flames of my Dragon Blood danced across the blade. "We're up."

"Does Saphira know what to do for whatever craziness you've got cooked up?" Kirito asked.

"Probably," I said dryly as I drew in a breath to yell. "Okay parties, _switch!_ "

"Bout time!" Agil tossed over his shoulder as he and his friends ran from the boss.

"Kick his can, guys!" Ion grinned tiredly as he, Angel and I ran by each other.

"Hey." I heard Saphira's soft voice beside me just before we ducked under a vicious blow from Asterius' hammer. "You got this," she said as she jumped forward, her sword lighting up blue as she stabbed into the boss' leg.

 _I got this,_ I repeated to myself. If we could sweat in this world, I would have been drenched by then. _I can do this._ See, there was one part about my mental conditioning that I hadn't mentioned to Kirito, nor had Saphira realized about it. I always fought my best when I was angry. So in order to both help hide my emotions that had been eating at me since the death of my parents and further hone my fighting prowess, I had chosen to draw on the anguish I felt at their passing, focusing on it so that it would _only_ come out when I literally called upon it.

I knew it was dangerous to compartmentalize one's emotions like this, especially when it pertained to anger, but I didn't care. The way I saw it, my rage and sorrow could either cripple me or help me beat this forsaken world.

Grabbing at the last dagger I had brought, I ran behind Asterius, dodging the other players around me as I turned around and hurled the flaming knife at its head, striking it in the horns, and causing it to stumble forwards as the knockback effect kicked in.

"Here goes," I breathed to myself as I held my blade with two hands. Saphira saw my stance and began to instruct the others to give me some space. Kibaou looked like he was going to argue, but Agil grabbed him by the collar and held him off the ground while giving me a grin and a thumbs-up.

"O mighty demon who impedes our path, your obstruction shall not be allowed!" I shouted, and I found myself moving faster than I had the entire battle, virtual adrenaline pumping my body to strike harder than ever before. At the same time, emotions that I had been pushing down surged to the surface, fueling the unlit rage in my heart. _It's working._ My blade was tearing red gashes through the monster's body so fast my conscious mind was three steps behind my body's movements.

"Hear this!" I continued, my fury beginning to dull any senses that were not necessary. I was barely aware that the boss' body was beginning to smolder like hot coals, just as Argo had predicted. The rage I had been suppressing was consuming everything in an attempt to fuel my vengeance, sharpening every sense for the sole purpose of destroying the beast above me. "I am Mataras of Aincrad!" My hit count was past a dozen consecutive strikes, which had to be some kind of record. I found myself standing in front of the boss, who was bellowing a challenge at me, but I wasn't done yet.

"I now lay thee waste with the Bloody Stinger, and erase thy vast defilement!" I screamed. " _SHATTER!_ " Leaping up as fast and high as I could, I stabbed at the boss' chest- only to be slammed into the wall in the blink of an eye, courtesy of a hammer blow from Asterius.

It actually took me several seconds to realize what had happened- my brain was still reeling from the raw emotions and intense mental focus that I had forced upon myself. When I did realize what had happened to me, I was just in time to see Kiriha land the final blow to the boss, blasting it into oblivion at last.

"Oei…" I groaned, my head swimming. If it was the real world, I would have chalked it up to the pounding I had just received, but I knew better. _I guess those emotions were more than I was expecting to handle,_ I thought to myself. Part of me could feel the simmering anger still whirling inside, resentful of the fact that I had not been the one to land the final blow, but I pushed it down.

As the 'Congratulations!' sign appeared, several players gathered around Kiriha, congratulating her on the defeat of the boss. Looking on, I saw that Kirito was smiling with pride, which brought a smile to my own face. _Like sister, like brother,_ I mused. _Yeah- it's good that she got the last hit, I suppose._

I was suddenly aware of two hands reaching down to help me up, each one belonging to a different person. I looked up to see the faces of Ion and Angel, both of them appearing a bit concerned. "You okay, man?" the boy asked as I accepted their help in getting up.

Glancing up at my HP bar, I could see that I was in the yellow, very close to the red zone. "Never better," I said heavily as I pulled up my inventory and extracted a health potion. I downed the mostly-tasteless liquid quickly before tossing the vial over my shoulder, breaking it into pieces.

"Maybe you should take it easy until your HP gets back up?" Angel suggested. "That was quite the hit you took."

"It only happened because I got too careless," I muttered. _I should have practiced a lot more before trying that in live combat… Rage is a great motivator, but a poor general. Need to get to where I'm using it as fuel, not a direction…_

"Well, whatever you were doing before you got whacked was worked like a charm," Ion said with traces of admiration in his voice. "I'd heard the rumors about a player that could move outside the skill system, but I didn't realize that was you until this fight."

"What, the display of my charming personality before the raid didn't tip you off?" I said with a wry grin.

"Well, a lot of front-liners are described as jerks, so that didn't really help narrow it down," Angel replied with an easy smile.

"Good to know I'm not the only one the public hates," I said sarcastically as I began to make my way back over to my teammates, though I saw that Saphira and Rivka were already on their way over to check up on me.

"Hey, what you did, getting in close to the boss to cut down its HP that fast even though there's the death penalty to consider," Ion said with a thumbs-up. "That took guts- something I admire. If you ever need a hand with something, look me up. I'd be glad to help you out if I can."

"That goes for me, too," Angel added as she and Ion opened their menus. A second later, I was notified of two separate friend requests.

"Brother!" Saphira's voice caught my attention before I could press a button, and I turned just in time to get one of her trademark tackle-hugs. "Don't scare me like that again!" I gave Ion and Angel a look that asked for a few minutes, which they caught and obliged to.

"Sorry, sorry," I said tiredly, returning the embrace, though not as tightly. "I didn't pay enough attention to his speed once he went berserk. I'll do better next time, promise." I half-expected her to tell me that there wasn't going to be a next time, but she just nodded and buried her face in my shoulder.

"You nearly gave us both a heart attack," Rivka said disapprovingly.

"Sorry, Rivka," I replied. "I really thought I had him. If nothing, this whole experience should teach us not to underestimate the game any more than we already have."

"At least we didn't lose anyone in this raid," Asuna said as she walked up to us. "That's definitely something."

"True," Saphira sniffed as she pulled away and wiped at her eyes. It looked as though she had been about to cry, but managed to get herself under control in time to prevent the waterworks. "We're all alive… And Kiriha got to take down the boss."

"Which means she'll get a good EXP bonus that'll put her close to where we are," I added. Noticing how many players were congratulating Kirito's kid sister instead of giving her the harsh treatment we had received back on floor one made me smile a little. "All in all… this day could have gone much worse. In fact, I think we'll call it a good day."

"Yeah," Saphira sniffed once more. "We're all alive, and maybe from now on we'll be able to work with the rest of the front lines without having to get into a shouting match."

"Hmm…" I mused as I watched Kibaou and Lind off to the side, talking in low tones, casting glares at Kirito and the rest of us every few seconds. "I don't know if it'll exactly be smooth sailing from here, but I suppose this might be the beginning of a more permanent alliance."

"By the way…" Rivka said with a grin that gave me a sinking feeling. "Was that some Noragami I heard while you were going on your rampage?"

"Yes…" I said, stretching the word out carefully. When she started to laugh at me, I reddened and sputtered, "It's a cool show! If I was gonna quote something to get myself in gear, it might as well have been from a good place!"

"You are so lame," Saphira grinned, her shoulders shaking as she started to laugh. "That show is cool, but you're a far cry from Yato's skill level, if that's your source of inspiration."

"And what if it is?!" I protested, though I kept a close watch on my sister's eyes. "A fictional god of war isn't exactly the worst kind of fighter to emulate in this situation!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Saphira replied as soon as she was able to breathe. She was holding her sides as she began to heave with laughter. "You're a giant nerd!" In her eyes I saw that although they were not as bright I as I always remembered, they had lost some of the pain in them, even if for a moment.

"Hey, we share genetic material," I told her as I ruffled her hair. "Maybe I just need to figure out how to bring it out of your genes."

"No way!" she wheezed. "That's all your own, bro! You are just that weird!" And she began to laugh again- music to my ears.

I knew that the hysterics partially came from the relief she was feeling at me not being dead- even I knew I wasn't actually funny enough to warrant this reaction. However, it was the first time I seen her actually laugh since we got the news about mom and dad. _Yeah_ , I sighed to myself. _This was a good day._

* * *

We proceeded to the third floor as a large group to trigger the warp gate. The third floor was covered in forests and rivers as far as the eye could see. "Kinda looks like home," Saphira had remarked to me as we first lay eyes on the new territory.

"Japan doesn't have this much forest where we live," Rivka said.

"Not Japan," I replied, knowing what Saphira was thinking of. "Back in the States, we used to live in an area with a ton of greenery like this."

"Ah."

We made quick progress to a town called Zumfut, where Agil's party triggered the main gate so that players from down below could come up. On the way through the forest path, I caught up with Angel and Ion to apologize for the interruption and accept their friend requests.

"Sorry I didn't react sooner," I told them. "Other than people I know IRL- well, Asuna- this was the first time I'd received a friend request."

"Other than Angel and Agil, that was the first one I'd given out," Ion grinned.

"How'd you lot end up together?" I wondered aloud.

"Ion and I met on the day of the launch," Angel explained. "We actually only just recently partied up together again. Both of us met Agil on separate occasions, so it was actually his call that put us back together in a party."

"Really?" I was surprised. Their teamwork had been first-rate during the raid, and it seemed as though they had known each other for longer. I told them as much, to which they both laughed, with Angel trying to hide a small blush. _Oh, I get it,_ I thought with a grin of my own.

"I guess some people just click," Ion finally said.

"Uh-huh, and most people call that chemistry," I said with a small snort of laughter, causing them both to redden.

"Oh, what would you know?" Saphira said as she and Asuna walked up closer to our conversation. "Not like you'd see if the right girl was staring you in the face."

"Saphira- we've been over this," I groaned, not liking where the conversation was going. "With my luck, the day that a nice girl takes an interest in me is the day that I'm the last man on earth."

"A nice girl, huh?" Asuna asked with a tone that I did not like. "What's that mean?"

"Eh…" I muttered, very aware of the stares that I was receiving from the others in the group. Well, Ion wasn't staring, he looked more like he was simply enjoying this reversal of fortunes. Eventually, I muttered, "I have high standards, okay? Also, my experience with girls so far has been… weird."

"Wait, is he-"

"He's straight," Saphira said with a slightly raised eyebrow as she cocked her head at our teammate. "To be fair, he _does_ seem to attract the girls with the weirder personalities for some reason."

"There's nothing fair about it," I said sourly. "Why can't I meet a nice, normal girl- or at least one that doesn't stalk me all the time!"

"He's had a stalker?" Angel giggled. She seemed to be enjoying this a little too much for my taste.

"Yes," I said tightly.

Seeing my locked jaw, Saphira decided it was time to change the subject- she knew I hated talking about _that_. "That's actually something he'd rather not relive, so let's talk about something else, kay?" she said quickly. "I'm interested to know, Ion; what made you stand up for us before the raid?"

"There's not much to it," Ion shrugged. "Lind and Kibaou were way outta line with their accusations, and I didn't like that very much. Simple as that."

"He likes helping out the little guy, from what I can gather," Angel added.

"Little guy?" I chuckled as I gestured to myself with my thumb. "The last time I went up against those jokers, I nearly got Kibaou to soil himself."

"Yeah, Agil says he wished he could've taken a picture of his face," Ion sniggered. "Apparently it was priceless."

"So you're also a fan of my work?" I asked with a grin. "I knew there was another reason you helped us out."

"More cos I'm pals with Agil, but I guess there is some truth to that," Ion nodded.

* * *

We all got rooms in the same inn that night. While the others went into town to gather supplies for a meal- Asuna said that there was a new recipe she wanted to try with her recently-improved cooking skill- Kirito and I stayed in the room to talk about the future of our party.

"So, your sister is pretty much caught up with us, the assault team won't try to attack us on sight, we're making some friends outside of our own party, it all seems to be going well for now," I said as I stared out the window into the night.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Kirito half-laughed.

"More like I'm worried about what could happen next that won't be so good," I sighed heavily. "Things never stay this good for long, Kirito."

"Yowch," he grinned. "Pessimist much?"

"Maybe I am," I shrugged. "Still, recent events seem to be telling me that if you keep your expectations real low, life won't disappoint you. Things'll still suck, but at least it won't be a shocker, you know?"

"Yeesh, and I thought Asuna was the downer in our party," Kirito winced, the grin fading from his face. "Did something happen today?"

"More or less," I said as I moved away from the window. "I… never mind."

"Michael, what's wrong?" Kirito asked me seriously. the fact that he had used my real name and not my handle showed his determination to pursue the subject. "Do you want me to message Saphira?"

"No," I said with a negative shake of my head. "Especially not now."

He cocked his head slightly before his eyes widened and he said in a low tone, "This has something to do with your parents, right?"

"Yeah…" I sighed. "You remember how today I was talking about mental conditioning to make myself sharper in battle with the Dragon Blood?"

"Kinda," he admitted. "I was more focused on the timing of our switches, sorry."

"No worries," I said as I waved the matter aside. "Basically, my mental conditioning is focused by reciting certain phrases. I speak the words, my mind automatically begins to drive my body harder than usual. There's just one catch."

"What's that?" I could see that he was genuinely curious now.

"The most efficient way to condition someone's mind is to force it to experience extreme emotions- kind of like hypnotism in a way," I explained. "For me, that specific emotion is rage."

"Rage?" he repeated. "What does that have to… oh." I could see the concept finally click for him.

"I'm so angry, Kirito," I told him. "I didn't get to say good-bye to my mom and dad, and now Victoria and I will never have the chance to go home to them. Sword Art Online took that away from us, and I just…" I clenched my fists hard enough to cut my palms with my nails, if not for the safe zone. Letting out a slow, shuddering breath, I said, "I'm so angry that I want to find Kayaba in the real world and carve his heart out with a dull, rusty knife. But since I can't do that…"

"You're doing the next best thing and taking your anger out on the world that he created," Kirito finished for me. I looked at him to see that his eyes were filled with nothing but pity and concern.

"You're taking my words about wanting to murder the guy pretty well," I said slowly, wondering if there wasn't something wrong with him.

He shrugged and replied, "I can't pretend to know what you're going through, Michael. I know, my real parents died, but I can't even remember them, so I guess I don't really know what it's like to lose them. All I can say is that if this is the best way you could find to cope with the loss, then I'll do my best to support you. I'll just trust your judgement."

"Wow…" I said slowly. He seemed to mean every word. "Thanks, Kirigaya."

"No problem," he grinned slightly. "I guess you just needed to get that off your chest?"

"I suppose that's part of it," I nodded. "There's also the fact that I like the idea of someone on the team knowing exactly what it is that I'm doing when I get like that. Normally I'd tell Saphira, but I don't think she'd exactly approve."

Again, Kirito shrugged neutrally. "I'm not your sibling, Mataras," he said. "I can't really tell you what to do here."

"Right, but thanks for listening anyways," I told him. "It means a lot."

* * *

The next two months passed by faster than we could have imagined. Floor after floor of Aincrad fell before our determination and growing numbers. As the game progressed, I continued to hone my skills with Dragon Blood, though I made sure to advance my one-handed sword skill, just in case I found some kind of flaw with my freestyle play.

After the second floor boss, it was collectively decided by the leaders of the parties involved with the raids that while the beta test knowledge was helpful for general issues, it would no longer be prudent to rely on the outdated information alone for boss raids. So each time we hit a new floor, we would have meetings to decide which groups would handle certain quests that would have information on the boss. Sometimes we paid an info broker to look into things if it felt like we were missing something, and Argo was our gang's go-to, which she had no problem with- she said we paid better than most quests.

By the time we made it as far as the beta testers had, several factions had begun to emerge on the front lines. The Holy Dragon Alliance was the strongest guild on the front lines- probably in the game- though that might have been because our party never officially formed into a guild. The runner-up in terms of strength was a guild that Kibaou had formed called the Aincrad Liberation Corps, though this may have had something to do with the fact that they boasted the largest numbers, not necessarily stats. Shortly after floor ten, another guild showed on the scene- the Knights of the Blood-Oath, led by a powerful, charismatic paladin named Heathcliff. Then there was the small-yet-elite Fuurinkazan guild, led by none other than Klein himself. There were other guilds and groups involved of course, but they were the top of the top.

Ion and Angel each maintained a steady solo operation, though they often worked with Agil on boss raids, where we would often cross paths. I came under the impression that if we were to form our own guild, they might join us, but I never thought it worth mentioning to Kirito- I liked our group's dynamic, and I think he did, too.

When Kiriha asked her brother why we didn't form a guild of our own since we already pretty much operated like one, he had told her that making it official would put certain pressures on him that he didn't want to face. People would want to join us, which would end up interfering our current method of conduct, other guilds might see us as rivals, and if we really did need to join a guild someday, Klein had given us an open invitation that we could accept whenever we wanted.

As time went on, we all began to grow closer as friends, and in the case of us siblings, as family. The bond that Victoria and Michael had nurtured was growing ever stronger, even if our names had changed. Kirito had been right, I knew- we were all that we had left, so we could not take our time together for granted. Rivka drew even closer to us during this time, though I never would call her my sister- something about that just seemed off to me.

Kirito and Kiriha soon became thick as thieves, though we all noticed Asuna and the raven-haired boy beginning to develop a special connection, too.

We all knew it had to be harder on Asuna since she didn't have anyone in Aincrad that she knew from the real world, so we did our best to be open and welcoming to her. It took a while, but eventually we found her to be a lively girl that loved a good adventure. She explained that in the real world she attended a high-end school for the city's elite students, so this whole new life was in quite the contrast to the humdrum of her old one- thus her thirst for questing and gaining strength. One thing she wanted to practice getting good at in-game was cooking, since she liked it so much when she was in the real world. Sometimes Kirito would argue with her that she should be investing her time and skill points into something more worthwhile than cooking, but he was always the first to be seated at the dinner table whenever it was her turn to cook.

It had taken some time, and though we would never call this world our home, it didn't feel like such a terrible place when we had our friends together.

* * *

By February, we had hit floor twenty-five, which marked a huge milestone for us.

"Twenty-five floors in three months," I said to no one in particular. "Maybe we'll be out of here in time for next Christmas." We were all relaxing in our hotel room on floor twenty, where we had found some noteworthy accommodations.

"Actually, it's two months if you don't count the first one, since we were kinda getting our feet under us," Kiriha pointed out. By this time, Kirito's younger sister was a strong, confident player that could hold her own against any of us in the party. Some time ago, she had changed from a one-handed sword class to using a scimitar, which she was close to completely mastering. Her end goal was to unlock the katana class, which Argo had explained to her only happened if one maxed out the scimitar skill. At first we had argued against the change, until she had pointed out that her kendo martial arts was more suited to using a katana than the straight, one-handed swords the majority of our party favored.

"We?" Rivka repeated with a slight grin on her face as she folded her arms. "You skipped out on the first month, kiddo."

"Aw, cut her some slack," Saphira said as ribbed our friend gently. "She had to work pretty hard to play catch-up, so you gotta give her credit for that." While not as light-hearted as she used to be, I was glad to see my sister acting more like herself these days.

"That's true," Rivka conceded her point.

We were suddenly interrupted by the sound of furniture being knocked over, followed directly by Kirito running in from the kitchen, eyes wide with what looked like panic. "Guys, get your gear, we need to go- right now!"

"Whoa, what's going on?" I asked, even as Asuna followed him into the living room.

"It's the Aincrad Liberation Corps," she said, her expression also one of alarm. "They went into the boss' lair, and apparently Kibaou is trying to take it on with just forty people!"

It took about four or five seconds for us all to process this, and as my temper would have it, I was the first to react. "Is he _insane_?!" I nearly shrieked. "This isn't just any floor boss, this is a milestone boss! We were planning on going at that thing with a hundred strong! He-He's gonna get them all killed!"

"Tell me other people know about this," Saphira said, her face pale as we all scrambled to put on our combat gear.

"Yeah, Klein sent out a general message," Kirito replied. "Apparently the Knights of the Blood-Oath are already on their way, and several of the other front-line guilds are right behind them."

"Here's to hoping there will be some people left to save," I said angrily as I checked to make sure that all my weapons were in place. Once we were all equipped, I flung open the door to our apartment and snarled, "If Kibaou survives this, he's gonna wish he hadn't."

* * *

 **(Closing Music: In The End by Linkin Park)**

 **Asuna: I think this silent streak has to be a new record for you, Red Swordsman.**

 **Mataras: Oh come on, like you can talk!**

 **Kirito: Meaning?**

 **Mataras: I was in the process of getting married! It kinda took priority over my writing for the most part! Also, bad case of writer's block, which may or may not have had something to do with the stress I was going through! You guys should know better than most how stressful and time-consuming planning a wedding is!**

 **Kirito/Asuna: Not really...**

 **Mataras: Oh, right... You guys 'eloped' in the canon. ...For lack of a better term.**

 **Victoria: So the writer's block is gone, then? Oh, and congrats on the wedding!**

 **Mataras: More or less, and thank you! ...I've put up new chapters recently for Star Sword II and Inheritance of a Dragon Slayer, more to come later this week on those. Before anyone asks, I'll be working on the next Legacy of Korra chapter for a bit, which is how it will be for a while.**

 **Asuna: Wait, you're ditching us?!**

 **Mataras: NO! What I mean is that I'll be doing one chapter of this story, then one of LOK, while working on the other two aforementioned stories. Also, the story for my patron donors will be receiving a new addition soon, and for those of you who don't know about it, you can find a preview with more details on this site under the title: Fairy Tales of the Old Republic.**

 **Kirito: Man, you drop off for a few months, but you come back loaded! Anything else you're doing?**

 **Mataras: Matter of fact, yes. My weekly podcast is still ongoing for Friday nights at 7 p.m. Mountain Time zone. If our readers have any wish to have their questions answered during the live Q &A section, I will be happy to oblige them.**

 **Asuna: _Before_ you take off...**

 **Mataras: Eh?**

 **Victoria: Can we get a timetable on how long it's going to be until the next chapter?**

 **Mataras: Should be a month, give or take a week. Until then, may you all be well!**

 **Kirito: Next time- When A Heartbeat Stops**


	7. When a Heartbeat Stops

**A/N: Hey everyone, it's good to see you all with a new chapter- and it's a doozy at that- but I have a few things I need to say, and not via a goofy omake. This needs to come from me.**

 **I know I haven't been updating as regularly as I had said I would, which believe me, I wish I could. But there have been two developments in my life recently that mean I will only be able to update irregularly, sad as it is for me to say. The first is that my YouTube channel (which many of you have subscribed to, and I thank you immensely for it) has been approved for monetization, which means that by investing time into it, I can now make monetary gains, unlike this website (unfortunately, since I like what I do here much more). This means my channel, Not Your Average Productions (which is being run by my youngest brother, my wife, a friend, and myself) will be receiving more attention from here on out.**

 **The second event that has occurred is going to take up even more of my time- for the next twenty years or so, I imagine. This coming May, my wife and I are expecting our first child, which will of course, take precedence above all others.**

 **I just wanted to let you all know once again that I'm not abandoning this site- never doing that- but I felt you all deserved to know why I haven't been updating as often as I used to, and why my updates will probably keep the same consistency or so as they have been for the last few months.**

 **Now then, let's get on with the story that you've all been waiting so patiently for! (Though if you visited my P_a_t_r_e_o_n four days ago, you would have seen that it was already available to the public, and if you are a donor, several days before that).**

 **P.S. There is something concerning my YouTube account that has specifically to do with this story, so I recommend sticking around for the omake to find out what it is- I've already told a few people about it, and they seem rather excited!**

 **P.P.S. Credit for the characters Ion and Angel go to Marcus Cersy a.k.a. Ion Gree**

* * *

 _And now at last the curtain falls  
On those that would ignore its call  
May they find peace in their ancestor's halls_

* * *

When a Heartbeat Stops

I had never really thought about what happens in the moment that you die. Even when the news of my parents' demise reached my ears, I didn't pause to think about what the experience must have been like. Maybe it was because I wasn't there myself.

I didn't see the car that crushed their bodies between the seats and the dashboard of their own vehicle. I wasn't present in the moment that the light of life left their eyes. I did not have to hear them cry in vain for help before the last breath departed from their mouths. I was sheltered, protected from those horrors.

Not this time, though. This time, I saw it all happen, the reality of what was occurring laid naked before my eyes. I saw the fear in her eyes, the confusion. 'Why did this happen?' she seemed to be asking. 'After we've been through so much, how could it end like this?'

She would never receive an answer, not in this lifetime.

In the span of what seemed like an eternity, her health bar dwindled before vanishing like mist before the mighty sun. It was almost as though I could hear her heart beating slower and slower. Then, as if time wished to make up for its lapse, she exploded in a flash of light- the heartbeat stopped. Just like that, her fragments were scattered through the air, twinkling like stars. Then, not even that remained- only our memories of her.

I thought I knew pain- I thought I had mastered how much it could affect me. This only served to prove me wrong. In that moment, pain tore my heart in half and the result was a scream that echoed through the boss' lair.

It wasn't a wordless bellow, oh no. My cry of rage and grief morphed into a single word that named the centerpiece of my hatred. " _KIBAOU!_ " I thundered, drawing the attention of more than half the present players.

The object of my fury began to back away, terror in his eyes, his sword coming up uncertainly before he realized that he was backed up against a wall- literally. I think it was in that moment that he understood that the monsters in the game were not what should be feared the most- it was the other players.

My sword lit up with a brilliant fire as I crouched slightly, preparing to run at him, words forming in my mouth to be spat out with unadulterated hatred. " _O darkened soul that spills sacred blood!_ " I screamed as I bolted right at him. " _With the Shinso, I WILL PIERCE THEE!_ " I could only see the color red blotting out everything except for the terrified man who was now less than five feet in front of me. " _INCISE!_ "

Clang!

My sword was beat away from its course with a speed and force that could have only come from one person. My eyes widened as a flash of blue plunged through the haze of red that obscured my vision, followed by a solid strike to my gut that not only checked my onward rush, but sent me stumbling back a couple of paces.

My burning eyes met soft hazel ones, orbs filled with nothing but pity and compassion for me. "Why…?" I asked, too stunned and flustered from the adrenaline rush and the loss of our companion to formulate more than one word.

"This game has taken so much from us," Saphira replied as she lowered her cool blue blade. "I can't let it take you, too."

* * *

All things considered, I suppose we should have expected _something_ like that to happen. It was called the Death Game for a reason.

We had charged into the lair of the twenty-fifth floor boss only to witness something out of a nightmare. According to the assault team's intelligence network, Kibaou had left with a force of about forty men. I only saw four _teen_ men- and they weren't looking so good.

The entity responsible was a two-headed giant armed only with his fists. He stood a good six meters tall, every inch of his body rippling with muscle. One of the faces had a heavy beard while its twin was clean shaven. The glowing red eyes were identical, gleaming with simulated delight as it swung at the all-but-defenseless Aincrad Liberation Forces. Above its head rested not four, but _five_ health bars. To make things even worse, Kibaou's men had not even managed to drain the top bar halfway. Finally, as if to add insult to injury, the man himself was still alive, shouting almost belligerently at his troops.

"I say we run in, grab his men, and leave him for the boss to finish off," I said coldly, though the truth was that I was nearly spitting mad.

"Brother!" Saphira said disapprovingly.

"At the very least, no one in the assault team is going to let him serve on the front lines after this," Asuna said grimly as we unsheathed our weapons.

"How long until the other reinforcements arrive?" Kiriha asked, none of us decided on our course of action.

Her brother replied, "Klein shouldn't be more than a minute behind us. The others… I have no idea." The boss prepared to strike at the men once again, and judging from the resigned looks on their faces in addition to the conditions of their health point gauges, it could end up being the last thing they'd ever see.

I knew there was no real choice to be made then. "Oh, to hell with it!" I shouted as I dashed into the lair, knives in hand. Ignoring the shouts of surprise and protest from my teammates, I hurled the blades at the boss' face- a standard combat tactic of mine meant to distract mobs' agro away from weakened players. Both of the short weapons struck home, causing only minor wounds to the floor guardian, but grabbing its attention all the same.

"All of you, leave!" I shouted at the stunned players. "Warp out!"

"Don't listen to him!" Kibaou screamed at his men, eyes wide with anger and instability. "He just wants to keep the prizes for himself- it's a standard beater play!"

"Shove off, you moron!" I bellowed back at him, dodging a blow from the boss that ended with me rolling to my feet a few paces from him. "I'm trying to save your men and you! Not that I don't wonder why I'm bothering…"

"My men, my mission-"

"Not your lives to waste!" I snapped as I looked back in time to see my team shoot into the fray, weapons lighting up.

"Get out of my way, you _son of a bitch!_ " Kibaou screeched behind me, just before I felt something impact my back, followed by the sight of a steel blade protruding from my stomach. I simply stared down at the weapon in shock, dropping my own blade as my health points began to drain steadily. I don't know if it was because I'd never expected Kibaou to have the guts to actually try and fight me, or if my paralysis came from the surprise of someone doing something so _stupid_ during a boss fight of all places.

Most of my team was too absorbed in the nearly impossible task of dodging the boss' attacks on their own, without tank supports, to notice what had happened. Even Kibaou's own men were too distracted with getting out their teleport crystals and using them to notice what had happened.

Kirito saw, though. His obsidian eyes were as wide as saucers as he saw Kibaou's sword lodged in my ribcage. So distracted was he that he nearly mistimed his counter strike against the boss' fist, which was seeking to turn him into black-and-blue paste. Before he completely reverted his attention to the boss, he shot me a strange look and shouted, "Open season!"

 _Open season?_ I thought dumbly as I looked back down at my chest, which was leaking red polygons. Then it hit me like a lightning bolt, and I craned my neck to see Kibaou grinning crazily. "That…" I growled malevolently, "was a _bad_ mistake."

Before he could come up with a retort of any kind, my hands lit up with flames as I straightened them into a pair of knife-hands. I had learned a few weeks back that there were unarmed skills in SAO, much to my delight. With a little experimenting, it had been easy for me to implement my Dragon Blood skill into my bare fists, which would allow me to fight even if I were completely stripped of my weapons.

Moving quickly, I crossed my hands in a pair of palm strikes on Kibaou's sword that broke it in two. With the weapon destroyed, the remnants inside my avatar quickly vanished like all other items in the game, allowing me to turn and face him slowly, my left eye twitching- Kayaba really had gone out of his way to recreate even the little facial quirks.

I noticed two things about the spiky-haired imbecile. One, he was staring at his hands, where his sword used to be, babbling something or other about me cheating to have broken it so easily. The other, was that his player icon had turned orange- the penalty for committing a crime against another player. As far as I knew, since this was his first offense, he would only be flagged for three hours.

I didn't need three hours to do what I wanted to do.

See, orange and red players were categorized as criminals, and by the laws of the game, if a green player like me were to harm- or even kill them- it would not change our icons. In layman's terms, criminal players were not protected by the system like the rest of us. Some players referred to this time frame as 'open season'- a time to punish such criminals without suffering backlash from the system's rules. I had long thought Kirito against this particular method of exacting revenge, but apparently the sight of his friend in mortal danger had burned away those inhibitions.

Lashing out with a brutal kick, I sent Kibaou skidding back into a wall hard enough for a purple polygon to appear at the point of object, reminding me of its immortal status, but I hardly paid any attention to that. My focus was solely on the orange-haired, sniveling _thing_ in front of me.

Still gnashing his teeth and spitting angrily, he lunged from his kneeling position, trying to tackle me or something. A small smile of dark pleasure made its way across my face as I raised my right foot up above my head height, only to bring it down on Kibaou's head with enough force to break even his thick skull. It was only somewhat to my chagrin that broken bones were not a mechanic that Kayaba had seen fit to implement into this world, because if it was, I would have killed the man right then and there.

However, I did mention that it was only a _bit_ to my chagrin. "Guess this means I get to have a little more fun before you kick the bucket, eh, _Kibaou_?" I said, my grin widening.

Something inside me was stirring, something that I had never felt before, despite the number of scraps that I had been in, both inside and outside the virtual world. This literally felt like something in between my chest and my stomach heaving, twisting, churning, but not in a way that felt sickening. No, this felt more… exhilarating than anything.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it, Beater?" Kibaou spat as he forced himself up from the floor, half of his face missing and leaking red polygons. "Kill Diavel so that someday you could take over the alliance yourself? I'll _never_ let tha-" A swift knee to his face shut him up nicely. He recoiled instinctively, despite the fact that the injury caused him no real pain, just an unpleasant sensation that one might liken to a limb that had fallen asleep.

"You don't get it, do you?" I hissed, the boss and the others all but forgotten to me now. "You haven't done hardly jack squat this entire time, Spike. You haven't stopped anything, either. Your life means _nothing_ to the effort of the alliance, don't you see that?" I had no idea how the words were going to come out at this point. It was almost as though the thoughts and resentments that I'd been repressing for the last two months were just fighting to clamber their way out of my mouth and make themselves known, despite my intense efforts to keep them down.

Was it scary? No, not at all. In fact, I _reveled_ in it.

"You only lived through that first boss raid because of my comrades and me," I continued as I snatched him up by the collar and hefted him up so that not even his feet touched the ground. "Your plans have been somewhere between mediocre and useless; your execution of them in the field, even more underwhelming. You've been nothing but a pain in my backside ever since the day we met, and to every former beta tester we know. With all that, I just _have_ to wonder…" I lowered my voice to a soft growl as I yanked him down to be eye-to-eye with me. "Why on earth have I let you live this whole time?" I reached for a dagger that I had on my belt with my free hand.

Kibaou spat in my face and cursed. Blinking away the spittle, I smiled wolfishly as I said in a lower voice, "I thought so." I stabbed him in the neck with the dagger, which was tinted with a green substance. He immediately went limp, eyes and mouth wide in shock as he felt the steel pierce his virtual flesh and the paralysis kick in. I dropped him like the sack of manure he was and turned away swiftly, drawing my blade with a quick spiral. The weapon had a dark gray blade and crossguard with a red jewel in the pommel- it was called the 'Shinso', and I favored it because of the extra boost it gave to my health points, which helped cover my lack of investment into the stat.

"Don't go anywhere," I tossed over my shoulder as the blade lit up with flames. "Once I've dealt with this boss, I'll come back for you- provided that dagger in your neck doesn't kill you by then."

With what seemed to be a start of panic, Kibaou must have realized that his health was already a meager amount, and the knife in his neck was still firmly planted there, draining what little health he did have left. It wasn't disappearing quickly by any means, but if the paralysis didn't wear off, or someone didn't remove it, he would probably die in fifteen or twenty minutes. "Get back here and fight me like a man!" he screamed at me, causing me to throw my head back and laugh.

"The only honorable men in a fight are the dead ones!" I tossed over my shoulder in what I would call a cheery tone. After that, I ignored him as I approached the boss, which was missing more health than I had last seen it, but still going strong against my comrades.

"Hmm, maybe I should've just killed him and saved that poison dagger for this thing," I muttered, annoyed at myself for such an oversight. "Then again, paralysis might have not worked on him. Ah, whatever, let's do this."

I noticed that the others were completely focused on dodging, antagonizing, and striking at the boss in a careful, tense pattern that they couldn't sustain for too much longer. _Time to interrupt the flow,_ I thought as my sword lit up with fire. Crouching down slightly, I sprang forward at top speed, fast enough that the fire columns burning around the room seemed like little more than sparks in edge of my vision.

"O mighty demon that darkens the doorway, your obstruction shall not be allowed!" I roared as I shot over the heads of my startled comrades. My sword sunk into the chest of the boss, sending it stumbling back from the recoil, though I don't know that I was imagining the looks of surprise on the two faces above me as I shot a feral grin at them. "Hear me, for I am Mataras of Aincrad-" my blade sliced upwards, exiting in between their faces and clipping the beard of the one on the right. "-now I lay thee waste with the Shinso, and leave this path free for others to walk!" I kicked backwards off the giant just before it could turn me into a cloud of polygons with its massive fist, effectively tricking it into punching itself and causing serious damage to its health.

The instant my feet touched the ground, I threw myself forward and shot to my feet behind the titan's back. Brandishing my sword proudly, I shouted, " _IMPOSE!_ " My sword carved five gashes in a star-like pattern before the giant noticed me and turned around to crush me.

However, just as I knew they would, my comrades moved to intercept the boss, Rivka moving to nail the giant's foot in place with a skill-driven spear blow that prevented it from getting around. Kirito was right behind her, swinging a glowing sword at the boss' fist to counter its assault on the girl that had just trapped it. Asuna taunted it further by attacking the leg that wasn't trapped, dividing its attention even more as it swung a clumsy blow as her. Fortunately, her superior SPD and AGI stats allowed her to dodge the attack somewhat easily, though she eyed the monster more carefully now. Kiriha furthered the distraction by swiping with her scimitar in the back of the monster before running away from it, hoping to draw its agro.

Rivka came straight over to join me, her eyes wide as she reached for something at her belt. Before I could ask what it was, she had pulled out a red crystal and shouted, "Heal!" Immediately, the crystal broke apart, and a soft light enveloped me. I blinked as the red surrounding my vision was reduced, confusing me for a moment.

"Be more careful!" she said as she hugged me tight. "You barely had any health left and you just went and… Brother?"

"Mmm?" I grinned crookedly at her as she held me at arm's length. "What's wrong, Sis?"

"Dude, did you pack some bags?" Kirito laughed a little nervously. "Cos it looks like your eyes are goin' on a trip."

"What?" I replied as the boss roared angrily and made to take another swing at Rivka. Looking up at it with annoyance, I muttered, "Oh, shut up." Leaping straight upwards, I slashed the back of the clean-shaven one's head before falling back to the ground as I added, "I just took care of one loudmouth, I don't need another giving me grief."

Normally right now, I would be nervous, playing it safe this close in proximity to the floor guardian. However, for whatever reason, I felt good right now- as if there was nowhere else I should be. The rhythm of the battle seemed as natural as my own heartbeat, and because of it, I held no fear of the monster before me, which threatened the lives of my comrades and I.

"Brother, do you have some kind of status effect?" Saphira asked me worriedly as I came back down to join them, all of us retreating from the now-very-angry boss.

"Not that I can tell- in fact…" my grin widened as I added happily, "I feel better than I have in a while."

"Mataras, your eyes are glowing silver!" Asuna shouted at me, sparking annoyance in my gut at her tone. "You're obviously under some kind of influence."

"I dunno that the game is directly doing this to-"

"Well if it is, I'll take a double dose of whatever it took to get me like this," I laughed, interrupting my sister. "Because I feel like I could take on every boss right now."

Saphira's eyes widened as she looked at me. "This isn't like you," she said softly, reaching out to grasp my shoulder. "What happened, Michael?"

"Sis, didn't you get the memo?" I chuckled as I gently- but firmly- removed her hand from my shoulder. "It's _Mataras_ in here. And in case you haven't noticed, we've gotta keep this thing busy while we wait for reinforcements."

"I thought you just said you could take on every boss in Aincrad right now," Rivka said tartly, obviously put out by something, though for the life of me, I couldn't guess what in that moment.

"I know what I said," I replied cheekily. "Doesn't mean I _want_ to do it alone. C'mon, let's go kill us a floor boss! Ha-HA!" Back into the fray I went.

* * *

Kirito and the others watched Mataras go with wide eyes. "Okay, so I'm not the only one who noticed that he's being…"

"A total ass?" Rivka remarked snappily.

"I was gonna say 'jerk', but yeah, you're right," Kirito nodded. Sighing heavily, he said, "I guess we should go save his dumb butt so we can all lecture him later."

"I dunno that's the greatest idea," Saphira said, stopping everyone in surprise.

"Do you _want_ him to get killed by that boss out there?" Kiriha asked incredulously.

"Of course not!" Saphira said quickly. "But there's something really off about him right now. At first I thought he was really angry when he came charging in like that, but this is something more… It's almost like he's snapped."

Suddenly, Kirito realized that he may have made a horrible decision. "Umm…" he said nervously. "Would now be a bad time to mention that while we were fighting the boss, he _wasn't_ helping the stragglers like you all thought? Instead he was… er…"

"Kirito, what did my brother do?" Saphira asked, paling as she cast her eyes around the room for something out of the ordinary.

"Well… Kibaou might have kind of stabbed him through the back, which is why his health was so low, then gave Kibaou the thrashing he's wanted to give him since the floor one boss fight?" Kirito said, wincing. "I only saw bits and pieces of it- dunno if he actually killed the guy or not."

"And you didn't think to mention that he might need help?!" Rivka nearly shrieked, her and Saphira virtually shooting lightning bolts out of their eyes at the now-frightened boy.

"Hey, c'mon you guys!" he protested. "It's not like Mataras couldn't handle him! And besides, Kibaou attacked him first, so it's not like Mataras' icon will change or-"

"I don't give a damn about his cursor!" Saphira yelled angrily at their leader. "I care about my brother's well-being!"

"He seems okay!"

"Does _that-_ " Saphira spat as she pointed at Mataras, who was currently fighting the boss on his own, and laughing like a madman while doing it- "look even _remotely_ okay to you?!"

Kirito looked between the boss, then the angry girls, then the boss again. "I mean, he _is_ winning…"

"Ugh!" Saphira screamed in frustration. "Take care of the boss! I'm going to go set my brother straight."

* * *

Duck. Slash. Sway. Triple stab.

It was like I could let my conscious mind relax and let my instincts alone guide my sword. The boss tried countless times to turn me into paste, all of them failing. The flames coating my sword danced and flared every time I struck, the force behind each blow comparable to that of a waterfall slamming the rocks that rested at its bottom.

A savage grin was plastered on my face, the result of a primordial pleasure resonating in my core. _This game has held power over us long enough,_ I decided then. _Time for it to fear us- to fear_ me.

"Brother, switch out!" Saphira's voice called from somewhere behind me. I ignored the call, instead reverse-kicking the boss' fist to the side as it came at me before leaping forward and stabbing it quickly in the leg, causing it to roar angrily as the first of its health bars finally disappeared.

"Brother, I'm not going to ask again!" Saphira shouted, her voice etched with a growl that gave me a slight pause. I'd never heard Saphira growl at anyone, ever. Then I shrugged and ignored her again. _Some anger will do her good,_ I thought as I readied myself for another round with the boss. _Repressing it has done nothing good for me- maybe now the others will see that._

"I warned you!" Her voice was suddenly right behind me. Before I could register what was going on, I felt a hard yank on the collar of my red jacket, then I was flying through the air. I felt impact as I hit the wall of the room, then another thud as I hit the ground.

"Okay, which one of you idiots missed what I did to the last g-" I froze in place in the middle of trying to get to my feet as a sword appeared at the tip of my nose. A light blue sword, held by a very angry Saphira, who was staring at me with a glare that could rival my mother's.

"Sit. Down." She said in a tone that left no room for arguing. Suddenly, all of my confidence and rage vanished faster than a stray spark from a flame. I sat down nearly as fast.

I wracked my brains, trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation- honestly, I'd rather be fighting the boss alone again. _Wait, that's it!_ I gathered what I could of my courage and said, "I don't think this is the time for this- we've got a boss to… finish…?" My voice trailed off as the fire in Saphira's eyes grew more intense.

"We just got our reinforcements," she said tightly. "You're not going anywhere until we get this sorted." Sure enough, I saw in my peripheral vision that Klein's guild, along with two other parties- Ion, Angel, and Agil among them- had arrived and were now coordinating with Kirito as the boss prepared to charge them. It was probably the first time in my life that I was not happy to see them.

 _Crap baskets,_ I thought as I switched my full attention back to my sister, who had lowered her sword, but not sheathed it. Swallowing nervously, I waited for the storm to break. This was the first time I'd ever seen her so angry, and at me no less. Sure, she'd gotten aggravated and annoyed with me, and I with her, but I'd never seen this level of anger emerge before. I didn't even think that she was _capable_ of getting this mad.

"What happened to Kibaou?" she demanded sharply.

"He stabbed me," I replied quickly. "I retaliated. He's somewhere by the entrance to the room, I think."

"You _think_?" she snapped.

"I stabbed him with a knife that had paralysis poison on it," I replied as mildly as I could. "If the boss doesn't get him in the next few minutes, his health will drain out."

"You left the knife in him?!" Saphira all but shrieked. "Are you trying to kill him?!"

"He tried to kill me!" I shouted back, some of my anger returning, despite my newly awakened fear of Saphira. "I'm not the bad guy!"

"You might as well be if you stoop to his level!" she shot back at me, her glittering hazel eyes furious. "Mom and Dad taught us to be better than that!"

"Mom and Dad are _dead_!" I screamed back, hurt and further angered by the fact that she would try to use them against me like that. "We're on our own, which means that we have to play by a different set of rules!"

"Maybe, but that's not justification for throwing away the morals that they raised us with!" she shot back. Her eyes narrowed as she added, "They'd be disappointed in you if they could see what you've done here today."

"No, they wouldn't," I replied softly, still angry. "If someone wants to harm you, make sure they don't want to try again.' Dad taught me that. If Kibaou survives this, he's never going to have the guts to come near me again. If not, the result is the same, leastways where his and mine interactions would be concerned."

"You're so narrow-minded," Saphira said as she shook her head in annoyingly superior way. "You're so focused on what's right in front of you that you're not seeing the bigger picture. Say you killed him. What would the rest of the assault team think? Our friends? I know we're more or less social outcasts, but do you really want to add murder to the list?"

"It was self-defense!" I sputtered. "Why am I being made out to be the bad guy here?! He's harassed you and me at every chance he's ever had! I would be doing us both a favor by getting rid of him!"

"Because I know you and your skill!" Saphira roared, her volume shocking me- I thought she'd given me enough surprises today, but I guess I was wrong. "You could've just incapacitated him and left it there, but no! You had to go ahead and try to one-up him, didn't you? You couldn't resist showing off the power that you've gained, because you have some inane need to prove that you are more dangerous than the people that cross you! It doesn't have anything to do with protecting me, does it?!"

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I felt the fiery rage return as I shot to my feet and slapped Saphira's sword aside, causing her to take a step back with slightly widened- but still very angry- eyes. "Don't you _dare_ say that!" I spat, grinding my teeth as I spoke. "Everything that I've done to increase my strength in this world and the outside one has been to protect _you_! Why is it so hard for you to see that?!"

Her gaze softened, but only a little bit. "If that's true, then don't act like the solution to every problem we have is to kill it," she said, her jaw set. "I don't want people to die because that's your idea of protecting me from potential threats. If you really did have to kill Kibaou in self-defense, I could understand that. But you made it clear that you incapacitated him with the sole intention of leaving him to die, which means there was a point that you could have stopped. You didn't and that's why I'm angry at you."

We stared at one another for a long, long moment, neither of us willing to back down. After an unknown amount of time, I relented and said, "I'll go take the knife out of him. What he does after that is up to him. If he tries to fight me again, I won't guarantee his well-being."

Saphira regarded me with silent, angry eyes for a few seconds before she nodded, once. "I'll accept that," she said quietly. Then she pointed a stiff finger at me before adding, "Self-defense only… _Mataras_." She spat my chosen name like it was a hair she'd found in her mouth.

Eyes narrowed, back stiff, I turned around and began running over to where I had left my hated enemy. Even still, a worm of fear was eating away at my gut as I wondered just how Victoria and my relationship had changed.

* * *

I found the fool, still alive, but just barely. His health bar was nothing more than a few scarlet pixels in the corner when I yanked the knife from his neck.

"What?!" he yelled. "Come back to finish the job?"

"No, much as I'd love to," I growled, making a conscious effort not to stab him. "I have to clean up your mess, and my sister will probably take my head off if I don't save your life while we're at it, so there." Grabbing him by the collar, I threw him outside the boss room into the hallway, away from the danger zone.

"The paralysis will be wearing off soon," I called over my shoulder. "Do yourself a favor and drink a health potion, then warp out of here."

"I'm coming for you!" he yelled, even angrier than before. "You hear me?!"

"Unfortunately," I said sourly, my back still turned to him, eyes trained on the boss and the party that was attacking it, measuring when the precise time would be to jump in. However, I did leave him with the parting comment, "If you do come after me again, you'd better be sure I'm asleep if you want a chance at winning. Otherwise, I'll kill you."

Not waiting for his response, I readied the knife I had taken in my left hand while my sword lit up in my right. _Back to war,_ I thought grimly.

* * *

Reinforcements took time getting to us since not every party had the full map data for the dungeon, and it cost us dearly. In addition to the twenty-odd men that Kibaou had lost, we suffered another eleven casualties during the battle. It was a disturbing experience, to say the least. It had been some time since any of us had fallen to a boss, the fact that it was in such great numbers only exacerbated the painful fact.

Boss raids had all but become a science for us, the assault team. A boss was scouted, tested for attack patterns, and then reported back to the combined forces that made up the front lines. We collected every scrap of data we could on the floor guardians, we double and triple-checked to make sure that we had the numbers and those players were an appropriate, safe level for such a task. Not just anyone could waltz in and become a part of the assault team nowadays. You had to be smart, determined, and powerful.

There were elites like Kirito, myself, Asuna, Klein, and Ion (who had become a SPD-type fighter that could match Asuna with a rapier), among others that were the best of the best at what we did, but no one in the small army of clearers was a novice.

All of which made the loss of these people even more distressing. Each one of them was irreplaceable, both as people, and as contributors to clearing the game. My only solace, slight though it was, had to be the fact that Kibaou would never serve on the front lines again. I tried to keep the thought that we couldn't let those that had died pass on in vain, but that would have been a lie- none of these deaths were necessary. We were just trying to salvage what we could of the situation.

So we fought on, despite the pain of loss, despite the overwhelming odds. We fought because it was the only thing we knew how to do in that situation. We fought because we believed that it was the _right_ thing to do.

Saphira and I hardly spoke a word to one another the rest of that boss battle, except to call for the other to switch. Kirito and I worked closely together, our swords causing terrible damage to the boss in our path. It felt a little strange, the flow of battle. Normally, Saphira was my battle-partner, but Kirito had ordered that she and he switch places so that she would work with Kiriha. We had practiced this before, of course, but only against field mobs, not a boss. Perhaps he sensed the tension between us, or she had asked him to do it. Either way, the encounter was one that we'd not forget in a hurry.

Scratch that- we would never, _ever_ forget it, solely because of what happened in the final moments of the battle.

* * *

Just when we were about to finish things with the two-headed titan, a rogue element entered the picture at the worst time possible. Kibaou suddenly dashed into our midst, cursor orange, eyes mad with hate. He had waited for the moment when our party would swap out for a reprieve to recover our health from the attacks we'd endured, making a beeline straight for me, a new sword in his hand, the blade lighting up blue as he prepared to destroy me.

I was caught off-guard by the intrusion, since I thought that he'd gone home in disgrace. I suppose his desire to remove me was now stronger than his desire for safety. He came at me, laughing crazily, too sudden for me to do anything but give a start of surprise and shock. Normally, my mind and body would have reacted with lightning speed, especially in the middle of a battle like this one. However, I suppose I froze simply at the sheer audacity and foolishness of such an act. Either way, he was coming for me, and I wasn't going to react fast enough.

Someone else did, though. Just when I thought she couldn't surprise me any more than she had, Saphira stepped in and banged Kibaou's sword away from me and inflicted the counter-paralysis effect on him, freezing him in place for five seconds. "No one," she said as she raised her own blade again, this time glowing a brilliant red, "hurts my brother!"

I took a step back, eyes wide as Saphira smote him across the back, sending him stumbling. "Whoa!" I exclaimed as she flowed seamlessly into another form while the rest of us just stopped and stared at her, even while the final stages of the boss fight raged behind us. Three skills she used on him, just enough to put him in the yellow zone above the red.

When she finished, he was on the ground, staring at her in shock just as much as the rest of us. He didn't even try to take advantage of the extended post-motion paralysis that kept her frozen in place as she breathed out in a low voice, "He's all I've got left in the world… No one, not you, not a boss, not even Kayaba… is going to take him away from me. Anyone that tries will have hell to pay."

"Damn…" I said softly. _How long has she been holding that in?_ Then another thought struck me as I recalled how angry she was when she found out about how I treated Kibaou. _She wasn't just mad that I would kill him,_ I realized. _She was worried that she was going to lose me to this game._ The look on her face at that moment must have reflected my own when I was in battle- the set jaw, the smoldering look in her eyes, the straightened back- I recognized it as my own stance.

I took a step forward, though to say what, I don't know. I'll never remember. I can only remember what happened next.

Kibaou, seeing my step, must have panicked, thinking that I was going to attack him. He shot to his feet and dived past me, tackling the closest member in our party and grabbing her by the shoulders even as he brought the sharp edge of his sword against her neck, slicing a minute red line in the bare skin. "Any one of you beaters moves, and she's dead!" he shouted belligerently as he held a wide-eyed Kiriha away from us.

Despite the roaring din of battle in the background, it was dead quiet between the seven of us. "After the boss goes down…" Kirito growled, his eyes wide and teeth ground in fury.

"You're next," I hissed, my sword glowing ominously.

"I don't know that I'll stop him," Saphira added, shaking with rage. "After everything I've done to protect you from Mataras' anger, I'd have thought you'd learn… I guess there's just no getting through to you, Kibaou."

"Only one thing gets through to guys like him," I snarled, though none of us moved out of fear for Kiriha's life. "Cold, hard steel."

"I'm not going down, you beaters are going down!" Kibaou laughed, crazed with adrenaline and anger. Anger at us, anger at the game, and anger at the world in general. If there had ever been any decency in him, Sword Art Online had stripped it away, leaving behind the thing we saw standing before us now.

Three things happened then. One, Asuna put every bit of power she had invested into her SPD stat and shouldered Kibaou into loosening his grip on Kirito's sister. It happened so fast that we hardly saw it- then again, she had earned the nickname 'Lightning Flash' for a good reason.

Two, the boss stumbled backwards as the last of its health points were depleted, and its arm swung wildly- slamming into Asuna and Kibaou simultaneously. His health bar all but vanished, almost as if fate were taunting us by not finishing him off so that we wouldn't have to.

Asuna's health, however… Having just switched out from a direct entanglement with the deadliest boss to date, she didn't stand a chance. It disappeared. _She_ disappeared. She died before she even hit the ground, but I got one last look at her face in the moment before she died.

She looked terrified.

* * *

These were the events that led us to the present, where I stood, crying in frustration, pain, rage, and sorrow. The same tears poured down the face of Victoria, even though she stood in the way of my avenging our comrade- our _friend_. Around us was a deathly silence, despite the mighty victory everyone had achieved.

I suppose it stemmed from the fact that out of all of us present, Asuna was one of the _last_ people you would expect to die in this game. She always seemed so confident and sure of herself on the battlefield and off. She was one of the sharpest minds that the assault team had, and to see her brought down by a combination of treachery and bad luck… I think everyone there that day felt something inside themselves die as we were reminded once again that this really was a death game.

"Look at what he's done…" I said shakily, pointing past Saphira at Kibaou, who was rigid with fear. "He doesn't get to _live_ after all this! He sacrificed his own men just to try and satisfy his damned ego, he threatened Kiriha, _and then he got Asuna KILLED!_ " I was screaming so hard, my voice would have broken in the real world, but again, my vocal chords weren't flesh, so they couldn't be damaged.

"You're too angry, Brother," Saphira said kindly, sending more tears down my face. "What you are right now… It's not really you- it's all the pain and humiliation talking."

"What else is left?!" I shouted back at her, my tone harsh and broken. "That's all that there seems to be for us in this world! Why can't I strike back, just this once?!"

"Because if you do it one time, you'll just be able to do it again and again, and it'll just get easier every time," Saphira replied as she stepped forward, her right arm, the one without her sword, held out to embrace me.

I wanted nothing more than to reject her embrace right there. I wanted to push her aside and claim my revenge, to destroy the man that had caused all of this. I was seeing red again, but it wasn't enough for me. My vengeance needed more before it would be sated. The dam was ready to burst- hellfire would rain on this man until not even ashes would remain.

Another grip that was placed on my back surprised me. As I was embraced from the front and behind, I heard Rivka say, "Saphira's right… This game has taken too much already. Don't let it take you from us. …We need you." I felt her head press against my back, which quickly became wet with tears.

Trembling, my jaw locked, I let my sword drop at my side, the flames going out as soon as it left contact with my skin. "Klein, you there?" I called out, my voice ringing in the still-quiet of the boss' lair as I managed to wipe my eyes.

"Y-Yeah," he stammered, obviously not expecting me to call on him right now.

"Get something to hold him, then haul him off to the Black Iron Palace," I said stiffly. Even though Kibaou hadn't killed Asuna himself- his cursor would be red now if it was, which would have resulted in a permanent residence in Aincrad's jail- he had inflicted enough damage on multiple people to make his stay in the prison a long one. "If he tries to escape, message me. I'll hunt him down, yellow cursor or no."

"You sure… you don't wanna take him yourself?" Klein asked hesitantly.

"If I'm around him any longer, I'll kill him," I said flatly. "Which would upset my sister even more than she already is- I'd rather not do that."

"We'll take him," Ion volunteered as he and Angel stepped forward, the girl holding a length of rope. "I have no problem taking him to the Palace."

"Plus, we _will_ kill him if he tries to escape," Angel said with mock-sweetness that was betrayed by the tears in her eyes.

Kibaou tried to book it, but he was stopped when his hand was severed at the wrist, causing him to lose his sword. The blade moved quickly up to his neck, held by Kirito, whose eyes were dull and lifeless. "Don't," he said in an equally flat tone.

Kibaou slumped to the ground, finally defeated. Angel and Ion roughly tied him up, then began to haul him off to the exit that led to floor twenty-six. It would be easier to go there, then teleport from the main gate down to floor one, instead of dragging him back through the dungeon and then to the town we'd all come from.

"I'll go with ya," said Klein as he waved at his men to join him. "Floor one is ALF territory, so it'll be good to have some extra people along with you in case he tries anything." Following his declaration, Ion and Klein put a makeshift gag on the prisoner to keep him quiet, despite his protests. It seemed like an unnecessary precaution to me- the yellow player cursor could do enough of the talking for him. Then again, the more uncomfortable Kibaou was, the better I would feel.

Though as I looked at the members of our team, I realized that it was going to be a long time before any of us were happy again. Her death was going to affect us all more than just in terms of how our party operated. Kirito, I knew, had been developing affections for Asuna, which we all knew she had reciprocated. The two of them had always looked happy whenever they were together, but now he just looked like a teenage-sized doll- cold and lifeless.

Kiriha had begun to look up to the chestnut-haired girl as something of a role model, confiding in her about private matters that she didn't want to discuss with the rest of us. Somewhere on one of the earlier floors, I had joked about Asuna becoming our group's surrogate mother, since she took care of most of the cooking and the 'girl talk' for Kiriha. I realized now more than ever that what I had said was true, especially seeing the dark-haired girl's broken expression as Kirito pulled her close.

Rivka hadn't been especially close to our friend, but they were a team within our team. Like Saphira and I watched each other's' backs, so did Asuna and Rivka. They had protected each other countless times, and now my best friend had been robbed of her trustworthy battle-partner. I supposed it was similar to how a police officer would feel when their partner was taken down in the line of duty.

Saphira and I, knowing what it was like to be the outcasts wherever we went, had gone out of our ways to make sure that Asuna was a part of our group just like Rivka and the Kirigayas. We had each tried to get to know her as well as we could, sharing in our experiences from the days before Aincrad, our hopes, dreams, and fears, and because of that, we had formed a friendship that would last our lifetimes.

Or so we had thought.

 _How foolish could we have been, to think that we would escape this game unscathed,_ I thought grimly as I placed my arms around my sister while she finally cried freely. Eyeing my red sword, which gleamed dully on the ground in the firelight of the boss room, I wondered, _Is this the price to pay for thinking that I could protect Saphira… all of them?_

* * *

Two days later, a meeting was held by the leaders of each party and guild involved in the assault team. Out of our group, only Kirito attended. He told us when he got back that there were some serious changes going down that would affect the speed with which the game was cleared- and not in the optimal sense.

Firstly, not only had Kibaou been imprisoned and banned from the assault team even when he was scheduled to get out in four months' time, but the leaders of the Aincrad Liberations Forces had announced that he and his guild were withdrawing.

The man, named Thinker, had reported that Kibaou had acted without his knowledge or permission, but the results of the raid left him in no doubt that his guild would be better off finding another way to serve the other prisoners of the game, rather than to continue throwing their lives away.

He wasn't the only one to resign from the assault team, either. A good one-third of the combined guilds and parties had announced their withdrawal from the joint forces out of fear for their lives. Only three powerhouse guilds remained after that; the Holy Dragon Alliance, the Knights of the Blood-Oath, and Fuurinkazan. This was possibly the worst piece of news that could have come, but Kirito did manage to put a somewhat positive spin on things.

The biggest change to the assault team's standards was now that in order to participate in a floor boss raid, players had to have been part of a previous raid, or at least a field boss raid. The other restriction- this one had been hotly debated for nearly an hour before the assembly had come to an agreement- was that players had to be _at least_ ten levels higher than the floor they were currently on, as opposed to the previous five-plus requirement, though people that were fifteen or more levels above the current floor were more likely to be selected for the raids.

"Also, there's one more thing…" he said quietly, before we all went to bed for the night. Aside from Kirito's visit with the other leaders, we had all spent the last few days doing absolutely nothing, too emotionally drained to even think about grinding on the newly opened floor. Even I couldn't get myself worked up enough to so much as go and kill a boar. So it was unsurprising to Kirito that we all gave him nothing but silent zombie stares while we waited for him to finish his report.

"I told the assembly that we're taking a leave of absence from the front lines," he said briefly.

This lit at least a spark of alarm in me. "Are we… giving up?" I asked him in a tired voice.

"No," he shook his head. "But I think we can all agree that we need some time away from the constant stress and fighting. Asuna's passing…" He choked up for a second, but he composed himself well enough to say, "We all need some time to come to grips with what happened. I know it's hitting all of us in different ways, and I think that we need to go somewhere quiet and just think for a little while."

"I think that sounds like a good idea," Rivka nodded dully.

"I agree," Kiriha nodded. Saphira nodded her assent, but said nothing.

I too, was silent, but I neither shook my head to disagree, nor nodded to acquiesce to the plan. I simply strode over to the window to peer up at the night sky, with all its simulated stars. Not one of them dimmed their luminescence to mourn the passing of our friend, and no clouds swept across the land to weep for her, as we had done. The world we now lived in was just so… uncaring.

"Mataras?" Kirito asked. "Are you gonna come down to the lower floors with us or not?"

Still, I remained silent, thinking. _She had people waiting on her, back in the real world,_ I thought. _Saphira and I have no one… So why do we get to live through this, and not her? Where's the fairness in that? I know life isn't supposed to be fair, but this is just… cruel._

"Mataras?" Kirito prompted again.

Turning back to face our leader, I muttered in a low tone, "I'll go with you all, yeah. I don't want to break up the group any more than I already have." I dared them with my eyes to contradict me, say that it wasn't my fault that Asuna had died.

No one spoke in protest, either because they didn't have the strength, or they knew I was right. I had killed our friend as surely as I had stabbed her myself. _If I hadn't held onto my grudge, taunted Kibaou as I did… Then she would still be alive._

I turned to face the window once more in silent contemplation. As I did, I noticed that it seemed to be misting outside, because my vision was getting foggy. Then the rain began to fall again, though there was not a cloud in sight.

* * *

At that moment, somewhere far from us, a pair of men were speaking in lowered tones in the shade of a gnarled tree that had long lost its leaves and was slowly succumbing to rot. At least, that's what the game was programmed to make it look like.

"I have to hand it to Kayaba…" said one of them in a deep, scratchy voice. "He knows… how to make a scene."

"Not nearly as much as those on the assault team," laughed his comrade. "You should have seen the fireworks at the end, especially coming from that kid."

"You… still think he'll go for it… PoH?" the other man asked. "Seems to me… that he's… still pretty soft…"

"Only on the outside," PoH grinned quickly. "He's got a soft exterior because of that kid sister he's got. Take _that_ out of the equation, and you've got a highly trained, ruthless killing machine."

"You want… to make her the first mark?" the first man asked with something akin to excitement. "It would be… a pretty telling message… Taking out one of… the assault team."

"Uh, _no_ ," PoH said quickly and definitively. "One, our numbers aren't big enough yet to risk a run-in with those guys, even if they've been cut down to size. Two, you've seen that kid's skill in action- you really want to risk making him our enemy if he finds out we offed his sister?"

"Just a thought…" the other man shrugged.

PoH sighed heavily as he muttered, "This is why I make the plans, Xaxa. You're excellent at execution. Looking at the big picture? Not so much."

"Why… do you think… I follow you?" his friend grinned wickedly. "Life would be… dull… without your ideas."

"Thank you," PoH smirked. "So, here's the plan for my young friend…" The two of them stayed in the shadows of that tree long into the evening, plotting the downfall of the players who would no doubt oppose them.

* * *

"So this is Taft," I muttered as we stepped out into a town on floor eleven of Aincrad. Looking over my shoulder, I asked, "Did Kirito already get us lodging for tonight?" The scene surrounding us was akin to the Town of Beginnings, though on a much smaller scale. Under other circumstances, I would have thought the town charming and peaceful. Today, all I saw were reminders that we were not on the front lines with our friend, where we belonged.

"Yeah, there's an NPC house on the outskirts of town that's big enough for the si- _five_ of us," Rivka corrected herself with a heavy sigh. "I just got a message from Kiriha before we came down here." Kirito and his sister had come down ahead of us to secure a temporary home for our party. Apparently they had been successful.

"Goodie," I said unenthusiastically.

"Better than the fields," Saphira reminded me with an elbow in my ribs. "It's quiet down here in terms of the EXP you can gain, so most people have moved on from this place. Not only is it far away from the front lines, there's not much a chance of being recognized by other players."

"That's something, I guess," I sighed, still feeling beat from the depression that had overcome us all. "I don't suppose any of us want to deal with other people too much right now."

No one made a reply as we walked towards the coordinates Kiriha had sent Rivka. The only interaction we had with anyone on the way to the new accommodations was when we turned a corner, and I found myself bumping into a small figure.

"Oh!" the person yelped softly as they backed away from us in obvious fright. The player was a girl, looking to be about Victoria's age, but a bit shorter than my sister. She hugged herself and lowered her dark blue eyes away from mine, veiling her face with bangs that matched Kiriha's in color as if trying to hide in plain sight.

"S-Sorry," she squeaked out, her voice incredibly soft and timid.

"No, it was my bad," I said quickly, moving aside to let her through. "Sorry to interrupt your evening." She peaked out from under her neck-length hair, and seeing that the path ahead of her was cleared, she mumbled something like a thanks and moved on quickly, not even looking back our way as she passed.

"Huh," I muttered as we resumed walking.

"What's up?" Saphira asked.

"I might have mistaken her for Kiriha, except that even Kirito's sister isn't that shy," I replied. "Weird."

* * *

 **Mataras: Anyone still up?**

 **Kirito: How d'ya expect anyone to still be standing after _that_ tornado you just threw at them?!**

 **Saphira: Seriously! You nearly go insane, _barely_ manage to come back from it, _I_ finally blow my top, PoH and Xaxa are planning stuff, and _you killed ASUNA of all people?!_**

 **Mataras: Hey, we got to see a nice, familiar face at the end, right?**

 **Klein: Man, you got balls that clang, no joke...**

 **Mataras: What? I made it pretty clear that one of the girls was gonna die this chapter.**

 **Kiriha: We all thought it was gonna be Saphira! You know, with you talking to her Hollow in the prologue and all?!**

 **Mataras: Wait a sec, did you all assume that just cos she and Kirito were the main protagonists in the original series, that gives them plot armor? Consider this- I never actually mentioned any of you in the present tense during the prologue.**

 **Everyone: ...**

 **Mataras: Is that just now clicking with you?!**

 **Rivka: Are you planning on killing all of us off?!**

 **Mataras: I'm not telling you that! You wanna know, wait for the next installment. And the one after that. And the one after that...**

 **Kiriha: We get it.**

 **Kirito: I gotta go sleep this one off... You wear us out too much sometimes, man.**

 **Mataras: Wait! I said in the A/N that I had one more thing to say!**

 **Klein: Oh yeah? What's next, you gonna kill me off, too?**

 **Mataras: ...Ya done?**

 **Klein: Yeah, I'm good.**

 **Mataras: Good. I just wanted to say that because I'm trying to get some extra views on my channel, Not Your Average Productions will be turning The Red Swordsman: Shattered Fragment into an audio book, chapter by chapter. I already did the prologue chapter on my own, and now myself and several of my friends are going to do group readings to give the characters some variety and extra flavor.**

 **Kirito: Seriously?! That's really cool! Who's doing the voices?**

 **Mataras: So far, my wife, myself, our friend Mr. Chris Critic, and our other friend Kit Shephard. Each of them will be doing one or two voices, so there's still some roles left to fill.**

 **Kiriha: Wait, does that mean that our readers can have a hand in helping out with these audio recordings?**

 **Mataras: Indeed it does. If any of you have any interest in lending your voice to a certain character, please send a PM so we can discuss how to get in touch with me for auditions. Just so we're clear, though- since this is a fan-based retelling of SAO, I cannot offer monetary compensation, nor am I in a financial situation to do so. I do hope you understand.**

 **Klein: Ha! Are you kiddin?! I think some of these guys will be excited just to participate in this thing! Sounds like a lot of fun to me!**

 **Mataras: Heh, I hope you're right. For now, I've said my piece. I bid all of you adieu until the next chapter.**

 **Saphira: Follow my brother on Twitter at RedSwordsman to be among the first that learn about new videos, new chapters, and more!**

 **Kirito: Next time- A Place to Belong**


	8. A Place to Belong

**A/N: All right, you've all been waiting long enough that I'll dispose with my usual preamble. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 _Forever  
_ _Allied  
_ _Many  
_ _Individual  
_ _Longing  
_ _Youths_

* * *

A Place to Belong

"Here's to us, the Moonlit Black Cats!" shouted a young blue-eyed player with blond hair that was just visible under his beanie. He was dressed in light yellow with gray pieces of armor topped with an orange-yellow cloak. In his hand, he was raising a silver goblet, filled with a dark-colored juice of some sort.

He was raising it in our direction, actually, which made me shift uncomfortably in my seat. "And here's another- to the guys that saves our lives!" he added.

"Cheers!" His cry was echoed by four others, all about the same age as him and my sister.

"Uh, cheers, guys," Kirito mumbled awkwardly on my left. Our group was seated with the five strangers that called themselves the Moonlit Black Cats at a large table in the bar at Taft, where we were currently stationed for our self-imposed rest period. Kiriha was sticking close to her brother, apparently uncomfortable with the new company, but she smiled politely as she raised her goblet to drink. Rivka echoed the movements, minus the smile- she was even more antisocial than the Kirigaya siblings, especially since Asuna's death.

Only Saphira managed a genuine smile as she returned the gesture and drank deeply from her goblet to show her appreciation for our hosts' hospitality. Seated next to her was a girl that seemed vaguely familiar, dressed in a mixture of sky blue and royal blue light armor. Her hair was the same color as Kiriha's, black with a bluish tint, and her eyes were an ocean blue. _I'm surprised she didn't take Victoria's in-game handle first,_ I thought with faint hint of amusement.

"Seriously," said a lanky kid with wavy brown hair dressed in green with a silver breastplate. "You really saved our lives back there. We owe ya one." His brilliant green eyes shone with the joy of simply being alive.

It wasn't really a surprise, to be honest- he was hardly exaggerating. Earlier in the day, we had been hunting on one of the lower floors for some easy EXP, though we did know a hidden area in that dungeon that yielded some good ore for upgrading our weapons. It had been not far from that place that we had run into the floundering guild.

There were literally minutes away from being turned into clouds of green and blue shards when we took a hand. With Kirito and I leading the charge, the ant mobs had been easy work with the girls backing us up. Even with Kiriha still getting used to her new katana skills and my Dragon Blood deactivated for the day, saving the group had been a breeze.

We had honestly expected our exchange with the people to consist of some words of caution before we parted ways, but we quickly found ourselves proven wrong. The guild leader, a young man with short brown hair and matching eyes named Keita, insisted on treating us all to dinner as a way of thanks. Kirito, being the social outcast and pushover that he was, conceded to Keita's earnest invitation.

On the way back, he had introduced us one by one to his guild mates. The blond kid was Ducker, the guild's treasure hunter and thief. The boy in green was Sasamaru, one of their damage dealers. Then there was a boy named Tetsuo, a mace wielder that wore purple and gray armor. Lastly was Sachi, another interim damage dealer, and the only girl in the group.

Whereas the boys were more lively and outgoing, Sachi seemed a little withdrawn and shy. So naturally, Saphira made it her mission to befriend the girl. She walked beside her the whole way back, doing her best to get the quiet girl to laugh or even smile, which she did a few times. Again, I was amazed at my sister's ability to reach out and befriend people so quickly, especially given that we had been recovering from the loss of our friend for over a month now.

 _If we let people in, there's no guarantee that they won't be taken away from us,_ I thought as I watched Saphira grinning happily at the Moonlit Black Cats. _Don't you see that, Victoria? First Mom and Dad, now Asuna…_ I took another drink from my goblet, barely tasting the sweet liquid as it entered my gullet.

I may have admired my sister's tenacious approach to life, but that didn't mean I would share in her optimism. From now on, making new friends was going to be somewhere on my list of priorities next to pulling my own teeth out and joining the ALF.

"You guys were so cool under fire out there, I coulda sworn you belong on the front lines," Keita grinned easily. His comment brought me out of my musings as he added, "Are you part of one of the clearers' guilds?"

"No, we're just a group of comrades making our way through the game," I told him quietly. "We were up on the front lines until a few weeks ago."

"Seriously?!" Sasamaru gasped. "You really do fight up on the front lines of the game?!"

"Er, yeah," Kirito nodded, looking supremely uncomfortable. Too late, I remembered that it was generally considered rude for higher-level players to come back to the lower floors, since it robbed the middling and lower class players of extra chances to gain EXP.

"Wait, so what're you doing all the way down here?" Keita asked, a slight furrow in his brow. He didn't look angry like one might expect, but he was definitely on edge now.

 _Oh well,_ I thought resignedly. _We don't need extra chances to be social anyways._

"We lost a friend in the last boss raid we participated in," Saphira said, causing both Kirito and I to nearly spill our drinks.

 _What is she doing?!_ I wondered.

"We came down here for some time to recuperate, get away from the action and everything," my sister continued. She was no longer smiling, instead looking down somberly into her cup, idly swirling the remaining drink. "We've seen a lot of death and terrible things happen since we were trapped in SAO, but this was the first time it ever hit so close to home for us… I don't think we really understood what it would mean if we died until then, but…" She sniffed, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "We miss her."

I clenched my fists as the painful memories surged through my mind, setting my jaw before muttering, "Sorry if our need to get away from the place where our friend died inconvenienced you."

Keita's eyes widened with surprise, but before he could say anything, Rivka smacked my arm with an angry glare. "Apologize to him," she demanded. "Now."

"No, it's okay!" Keita said before I could make a retort. "It was rude of me to ask. High level, low level, it doesn't matter- all of us have had our share of troubles in this game. I can understand needing to get away from… that." He bowed towards us slightly as he said, "Again, I'm sorry I intruded on your business. It wasn't my place. Besides, your red friend has a point- you all _did_ save our lives."

"He doesn't have to be rude, though," Rivka said, giving me a look that let me know I wasn't off the hook. Not that I cared- I wasn't exactly looking to be in anyone's good graces at the moment. Despite all the well-wishes and levity in the air, I was determined to be in a rotten mood.

"In any case," Keita said, seeming to sense the tension between us and trying to draw away from it, "I just had an idea- one that might benefit all of us, actually."

"What's up?" Kiriha asked, curious, and just as eager to escape the tension between me and Rivka.

"Well, you guys are looking to stay off the front lines for a while, which means sticking to lower-level areas, right?" Keita asked. When Kirito nodded to confirm, the leader of the Moonlit Black Cats said, "Well, since you're not in a guild already… How'd you feel about joining ours?" We all met his offer with surprised gazes, first fixed on him, then on each other. He continued, "I mean, you all have knowledge that nobody else around here is going to have, much less give to us. My dream is to someday have our guild take its place on the front lines- which is kinda hard to do when we've only got one forward." He gestured to Tetsuo, who waved eagerly with a light grin.

Turning back to us, Keita said, "Actually, I was hoping to switch Sachi to the sword and shield, that way she could help him out as a forward. If one of you could give her some pointers, I'd really be grateful. This way, we get some hardcore assistance from elite players that'll help us reach the front lines faster than if we did it on our own, and you get to have a good excuse for staying down here if anyone from the front lines comes looking for you."

"Oh come on!" Sachi protested ineffectively. "You make me sound totally useless."

Kirito and I exchanged a glance. Kirito then looked up at Keita and said, "Mind if I talk to Mataras about it first?"

"Sure!" Keita grinned. "I understand that this is outta the blue."

"Damn right it is," I muttered under my breath, earning me an elbow to the ribs from my sister, though she neglected to look up at me while executing the strike. Accepting the rebuke philosophically, I stood up and moved to the closest corner to speak with Kirito, who followed me a second later.

"Bad idea, no way," I said as soon as we were facing each other.

"Oh come on, it's not like we have anything better to do while we're down here," Kirito argued. "And they seem like good people- we should help them. Keita made some pretty good points about why we should join them."

"Since when were you so into helping others?" I scoffed with a scowl. "If you really felt that way, you'd have had us join Klein's guild on day one."

Kirito flinched slightly at my tone and harsh words, but he kept his voice level and calm as he replied, "All right, so that's not all of it. Look, it's just… When Asuna was alive… we were all smiling, laughing, having a good time unless it was a boss raid, you know? Seeing these guys kind of reminds me of that."

"So what, you wanna sit in a circle and sing 'kumbaya' with them?" I snorted, making him flinch again. "No thanks. I say we finish our leave of absence, then get right back to work."

"We never gave the rest of the assault team a specific day to expect our return," Kirito reminded me, causing my frown to deepen. "Besides, since when were you so _against_ helping other people? I've seen your sister go out of her way to help less fortunate people, and you help her by extension. Why are you suddenly changing your mind about it?"

"I'm growing up," I told him flatly. "I realize now that it's a waste of time trying to help every poor soul in this game by showing them acts of kindness like she does. The only way that we can _actually_ help them is if we clear the game as fast as possible. Considering you and I are two of the top players in the game- don't shake your head, you know it's true- the longer we spend down here, the longer it takes for the font lines to get cleared. Our group alone has provided nearly twenty percent of all new map data thus far."

Kirito opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. He did this a few times before setting his chin firmly and saying, "Okay, it might not be the most logical thing to do, but it feels like the _right_ thing to do. Just like I knew it was right to help you and Saphira and Rivka. So I'm going to help them, even if you don't want to."

"Fine," I snapped. "Do what you want, _leader_."

He regarded me with a slightly hurt expression before saying, "You know, we're not a guild- at least, not this second. If you feel like you're ready to return to the front lines, I won't hold against you if you feel like we need to part ways here."

I considered it for a few seconds before the rational part of my brain started berating me savagely, using insults that I wouldn't throw at a dog. _How can I even consider running off on the guy that I literally owe my life to, not to mention my sister's life!_ Kirito had given us the skills and knowledge needed to survive in this hostile world, and here I was, ready to run off on him as soon as the going actually got tough, without even so much as a thank-you. _If mom and dad could see me now, I'd get an earful like no tomorrow,_ I thought as my shoulders slumped in resignation.

"I'm sorry, Kirito," I mumbled guiltily. "Your leadership has gotten us this far through the game- I shouldn't be ungrateful to you, even if this whole thing has got me down."

Kirito's face lit up a little bit as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Look, I miss Asuna too," he told me. "But if helping these guys puts us on a path that gets our heads back in the game and rejoin the front lines that much sooner, we'll be able to carry on her work again."

"Just…" I started to say, then hesitated.

"What's up?" Kirito's voice was encouraging, so I continued.

"How do we know we won't lose these guys, too?" I asked bluntly. "If we make attachments like we did with Asuna, make friends with the Moonlit Black Cats… What's gonna happen if they die on us?"

"They won't die," Kirito said with such conviction that it checked me in place like a slap. "We're going to make sure of it. They asked us for help and were kind enough to offer us a place to belong, even though they barely know us. We _gotta_ repay them, make them the best players they can be. We'll train them so well that when we rejoin the front lines, even the Knights of the Blood-Oath won't be able to hold a candle to 'em."

I looked at him, shocked. Gone was the reclusive, close-mouthed Kazuto in the class surrounded by classmates two years his senior. In his place stood a steel-eyed warrior, ready to defend his comrades to his last breath. Kirito gave me a stiff grin before saying, "You in, or am I gonna have to train 'em on my own?"

"Like Saphira would let you," I snorted, though I couldn't help a smile from sneaking itself onto my mouth. "I still dunno that this a good idea, but like I said, you haven't steered us wrong yet. I'll follow your lead and help train them into clearers." It was strange to think that we, the introverts in the real world, would now be responsible for training a new potentially elite force that could go on to save lives on the front lines of Aincrad. _Life is weird,_ I thought then, still doing my best to repress the dark, ominous thoughts that had been ruling my consciousness up until a few moments ago.

That part of my mind whispered of omens and tragedy that would strike, but I did my best to ignore it. Kirito was right- these people had offered us a great deal with little reason to do so, and it was only right that we repay them. Taking a deep breath, I said, "All right, I guess we should go tell 'em the good news." _No going back now,_ I added silently to myself.

"Awesome," Kirito grinned as he clapped me on the shoulder. "I can tell they're gonna be cool to hang around. We might learn some things from them, too, you know?"

"Maybe," I chuckled lightly, not quite convinced of that, but I was trying keep myself open-minded. Still, one thing at a time, I decided as we made our way back to the table.

"We're in," Kirito said as soon as he had everyone's attention. Looking at his sister and Rivka, he asked, "Any objections?" We both knew Saphira was on board to join the small guild.

"Nah," Kiriha said with a shake of her head. "These guys kinda remind me of a friend I have back home since they all go to computer club together IRL."

"That's how we know each other," Keita explained with a welcoming smile. "The others keep telling me we should be making more friends though, so don't worry about fitting in."

"I guess I'm okay with it if everyone else is planning on sticking around," Rivka said noncommittally.

"I am," I told her. She met my gaze, and I bowed my head in her direction as a sign of apology. "I'm staying, as long as you can tolerate having me around." I tried to add a laugh into my voice, but it only came out as a weak chuckle. _I have_ got _to get ahold of what comes out of my mouth,_ I sighed inwardly.

Somewhat to my dismay, my best friend simply acknowledged my feeble attempt at humor with little more than a curt nod.

"Well, you and I don't really have a choice in whether or not we stay on a team," Saphira grinned up at me, drawing my attention away from Rivka. "Blood runs thicker than water and all that."

"So you two are related, then?" the girl next to Saphira asked timidly.

"Yep, he's my brother," her new friend nodded. "And we're not the only brother-sister monster-hunter duo in the group, either. Kirito and Kiriha are siblings, too."

"Saphira!" Kirito exclaimed, shocked at her willingness to discuss our real world relationships so easily.

"What?" she shrugged. "Everyone up on the front lines knew. Why shouldn't they?"

"Getting off-topic, aren't we?" I interjected. I looked pointedly at Keita and his friends, adding, "I think we have a few details to attend to, right? Joining a guild, how does that work?"

Keita opened his menu and typed in a few commands. A request popped up in front of each of us, saying, 'Keita has invited you to join the Moonlit Black Cats Guild.' Below the text was the standard 'yes' and 'no'.

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory," he laughed.

"Oh."

* * *

We regrouped in the morning with our new guild mates at the bar- it was actually the de facto headquarters for the guild since they lacked the funds to purchase a house or another building to use as a permanent base. It had been agreed that our group would relocate to the inn in order to save money and so that we wouldn't have to waste time every morning meeting up at a location separate from our housing.

We wound up renting an extra pair of rooms in addition to the three that the Black Cats had already leased out- originally it had been two rooms for the boys, and one for the girl, Sachi. Now Kirito and I would be sharing a room, same as before, while Rivka and Kiriha shared another. Saphira asked Sachi if she didn't mind having a roommate, to which the dark-haired girl did not object.

"It does get lonely, having your own room sometimes," she remarked timidly as she passed Kirito and my open door.

"Say goodbye to sweet, sweet isolation," I mused out loud as I transferred some of my inventory to the chest in my room. "I haven't had my own room since this whole mess started, and I miss it. Very little quiet time."

Kirito looked slightly offended as he looked over his shoulder at me from where he was setting a framed photo on the dresser next to his bed. "You haven't said anything about me being a bad roommate," he said mildly.

"I didn't say you were," I replied as I closed my menu. "I just like having my own space. But in light of our situation, it doesn't really make much sense for me to blow so much money just for some creature comfort, does it?"

"Was there any point to you telling us that, or were you just trying to start an argument?" Saphira asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You make it sound there's no point to arguing," I replied with a crooked grin.

"Ignore him," my sister said with a roll of her eyes as she continued walking to her new room. Sachi quickly followed her, looking nervously over her shoulder as I stuck my head out in the hallway to make one last sally.

"It's great for passing the time!" I called.

"More like wasting time," she tossed back.

"Have you ever won an argument with her?" Kirito asked as he finished manipulating his menu.

Turning back to face him, I shrugged and said, "I don't think so. She's usually right."

"What about when she isn't?" he queried.

"Then my mother was right, and we were both wrong," I answered with a grim smile.

* * *

"So how do you guys want to do field work?" Keita asked Kirito and I over lunch. He had asked Kirito to sit with him at a separate booth so that they could discuss battle strategy, and our group leader had invited me along. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to at least see what they had to say.

"Well, we've got a pretty well-established pattern by now," Kirito answered. "But if we're becoming a bigger group, I think we should try to mix it up a little and get used to working with more than one person each. Things can get crazy in the dungeons later on, and it'd be better for us if we're able to be a little more flexible with who we can work with."

"You're thinking of pairing each of us with someone new from both groups," I interjected, seeing where his line of thinking was headed. Glancing at Keita, who was looking thoughtful, I added, "It's not a bad plan, I guess. There'll be some awkward transitions, I imagine, but it could also help us build some camaraderie."

"Yeah, we could make new pairs and go on some low-level quests to get a feel for how our new partner handles combat," Keita nodded. "I like that idea- only, how were you planning on pairing us off? The numbers work out well- five of you, five of us- but I don't really know how well any of my friends will work with yours."

"I was thinking of drawing names out of a hat or something," Kirito said. "Put my team's names in one hat, then having your guys pull the names out- whoever they draw is their partner, at least for the day. If there's a pairing that doesn't work out for some reason, then we can shuffle some people around."

"I like that," Keita grinned. "Good way to avoid any bias decisions. I'll go tell the others while you set up the hat, sound good?"

"Sure," Kirito smiled in return.

"Hold on," I objected. "Shouldn't we be a little more deliberate in how we pair people up? I mean, this _is_ life and death we're talking about."

Kirito acknowledged my concern, but he had a ready answer for it. "Later on, we'll worry more about the particulars," he told me. "But for right now, I'm more concerned with Keita's group getting up to higher levels and honing their skills. On the lower floors, we can act as forwards for them until they've built up enough strength so that we can all perform as a larger group in the field."

"That runs the risk of everyone growing too used to their roles and throwing them off when we shuffle around again," I frowned.

Keita answered this time, "That may be true, but with the guild doubling in size, there's going to be some role switching happening anyway. I'd rather make the most out of it, even if that means a few extra switches." I nodded my understanding of the thought process, albeit reluctantly.

"Fair enough, but there's another matter I'm concerned about," I said before they could get up to leave. When they looked at each other and settled back down, I added, "Who's actually the leader here?"

"Oh, is that what's bugging you?" Keita grinned easily.

"Don't worry about it," Kirito said quickly, heading the brown-haired young man off. "Keita's in charge."

"Wait, what?" the guild leader asked, looking surprised at him. "But you've got more experience than I do."

"Not in the administrative department," Kirito said with a negative shake of his head. "We each mostly did our own thing except when we were in the field- I don't know the first thing about managing group money or dividing the loot earned in the field. The way we've done things so far is to each his own with the prizes. If the guild has different rules, I don't want to interrupt the flow, and seeing as you founded it, I think it's better if you maintain command."

"Oh," Keita said, looking a little surprised. "Well, since the guild just doubled its numbers, I was actually going to ask if you wanted to be the field commander, Kirito. But if you feel like that would disrupt the flow of things too much, I understand."

"Field commander?" Kirito asked, intrigued. "What'd you have in mind for me to do if I accepted?"

"Basically have you coordinate our movements in the dungeons and plan for boss raids," Keita answered. "You wouldn't have to worry about handling money or any of the other guild leader stuff- I'll take care of that."

"So while you manage our salaries, Kirito manages who ends up being cannon fodder?" I said flatly. When they both shot me sharp looks, I held up my hands in surrender and added, "Sorry, just saying it how I see it. The guy calling the shots in the field _is,_ in essence, responsible for all the lives in the party. One bad call from him, and we could all end up with our names crossed out on the Wall of History."

"We know that, why bring it up?" Keita asked with a guarded frown.

"Because we all need to know if whoever has that job can handle that pressure," I answered. Looking at both of them dead-on, I said, "Look, this is great that we're coming together and helping each other, but I don't want to see us getting caught up in a moment of excitement and glossing over the harsher truths of our situation because of that. We need to be sure of what it is that each of us is doing, which may force you to deal with uncomfortable facts."

"Do you think Kirito isn't qualified for the job?" Keita asked, his brow furrowing a little more.

"I think he's the most qualified guy in the game," I replied sincerely. "But he's also my friend. I don't want to see him having a breakdown someday because he made a bad choice- as everyone eventually does- and becoming something less than what he is now."

"You're afraid I'll end up like you," Kirito said softly.

"Of course I am," I snarled, just barely managing not to punch him, safe zone be damned. "I lost my parents, which was hard enough. Now I'm finding myself unravelling because our friend died due to my arrogance! You've only had to endure one loss, Kirito, another could be your undoing, especially if it was your decision that got one of our comrades killed!"

"That's enough!" Keita said sharply, slapping the table between us and drawing our attention back to him. "Look, I didn't mean to stir up this kind of argument. I just want what's best for the guild. Kiriha and Rivka were telling me that Kirito has been the brains behind your team, so I figured it made sense to put him in charge when we're in the field. But if you don't think you can handle the pressure, I'll continue to lead our expeditions."

"I'll do it," Kirito replied firmly. "I have to."

"Why?" I demanded. "What if-?"

"You said it yourself, I'm the best for the job," Kirito said, cutting me off. "So how could I live with myself if our comrades dies on someone else's orders when we both know I could have done a better job? I will have just as effectively killed them."

I started to argue back, but then I forced myself to close my mouth. _He's right,_ I thought resignedly. _We only made it this far and became this strong because of his guidance. He has the experience that the guild needs in order to grow. Any of the rest of us would be subpar field commanders._

"If you think you can do it, I won't argue it any further," I muttered. "You are the best of us."

"Thanks," he grinned lightly, though his eyes were haunted. Already I could see his mind at work, thinking of how he was going to transform this mid-level guild into an elite force for the front lines. It was going be tense, nail-biting work to grow their strength swiftly and safely at the same time.

 _God, give him guidance,_ I prayed as I stood up to leave the two leaders to work out the details of Kirito's position in the guild.

* * *

About thirty minutes later, when we all had finished with our noon meal, Keita had us gather upstairs in his and Tetsuo's bedroom, otherwise used as the meeting room. It was a little bit cramped with ten of us in one apartment, but it wasn't too bad. I tried to stand next to Rivka, but she stood by the corner of the wall next to Kiriha with the bed in front of them, leaving no room for me. Resigned to her being angry at me, I elected to stand next to Saphira, who smiled encouragingly at me.

"Kay, gang," the guild leader said with an easy grin that he directed to all of us. "So, with our recent increase in numbers, I figured a little bit of a pecking order wouldn't hurt anything."

"Does this mean you love some of us more than others?" Ducker smirked, and his friends laughed, as did Saphira and Kiriha.

"No, it means that there's gonna be a few changes to the way we do things in the field," Keita said once the laughter died away. Indicating Kirito with a wave of his arm and another friendly smile, he announced, "I've talked to Kirito for a bit, and he's agreed to be the guild's Vice Commander and Field Strategist."

"Whoo!" Ducker exclaimed.

"I knew you had it in you, buddy!" Tetsuo laughed as he slapped the black-clothed swordsman on the back, surprising him.

"I promised myself I wouldn't cry!" Sasamaru pretended to sniffle.

"Wait, so… you're all okay with this?" Kirito asked, a little nonplussed.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Sachi spoke up softly while her teammates echoed a chorus of agreement. "We all saw you fight yesterday- you saved our lives. We all know that you have way more experience than we do."

"Oh," he said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Well I guess when you put it that way…"

"She's right," I said, stepping forward as I spoke. "All of us here have had our lives saved by you and your tactics at least once. There's no one I'd trust my life with more when it comes to planning our survival in this death game." I maintained eye contact as I talked, hoping to convey my sincerity to both him and Keita.

"Mataras is right," Saphira added. "We probably wouldn't have made it past the floor one boss without Kirito. He's seen us this far, and I have every faith that he'll see us all to the top floor."

I looked at our new comrades, searching for any signs that they doubted in Kirito's ability to lead them. It was key, I knew that they trust him more than those of us that had already worked with him- we knew firsthand of his capabilities, while they only had second-hand knowledge of his feats other than our rescue raid from the previous day. Yet the only sign of resistance that I could see was from Sachi, which struck me as odd since she was of the ones with the strongest arguments as to why her comrades should trust him. Even then, it wasn't outright doubt- more of a cautious optimism, like she wasn't sure that she should be allowing herself to believe that he was real, that he could make them all strong like they wanted to be.

 _Maybe she'll get partnered with him for field work,_ I thought with a small shrug. _That'd be a good way to reinforce the fact that his skills are the real deal._

As if on cue, Keita said, "Well, if no one has any objections to Kirito's appointment, there's another matter to address. I don't know that all of you will like this, but Kirito and I both think that it's necessary, at least for a little while."

"Is this some kind of crazy initiation thing?" Kiriha asked nervously.

"Oh yeah, to get in, you've gotta eat one of those slime mobs from floor-"

"Nope, no slimes," Keita said, a little exasperated as he cut off Ducker. "I think I'm starting to see why we haven't had any luck finding any new members these last few months…"

"Keita and I think we should all get used to working together in the field," Kirito explained. "Since there's an equal number of people that are new to the guild as those that aren't, we figure we'll form pairs of old and new members and have them take on a few quests to start building teamwork."

"Do we get to pick our teammates?" Tetsuo asked eagerly.

"Nope, it's gonna be up to chance," Kirito said as he reached behind himself and pulled a helmet off the dresser that we hadn't noticed before. We could just make out a few slips of paper that rested in the unused armor piece. "I've written down the names of each of my teammates in here, including my own. Those of you that have been in the guild from the beginning are each gonna pick a name, and that'll be your partner for the afternoon. If you two work well together, we'll keep you in that pair for a while."

"What if we don't?" Rivka asked with a slight frown. "I mean, it hardly would make sense for me to pair up with Ducker, for example, since we both are treasure hunters."

"For now, we'll be playing forwards to help these guys level up," Kirito explained. "We can get to party roles again once we start doing larger field raids. Make sense?" We all nodded- he was right, increasing the other Cats' levels was the top priority right now. We could worry about finer details later on.

"All right, since Tetsuo was so eager to choose, he goes last," Keita smirked. The mace-wielder made a show of pretending to pout, which drew out a few chuckles from his friends while our leader beckoned to Sachi. "C'mon," he said encouragingly, "You can have first pick, Sachi."

"O-Okay…" she said as she stood up from the bed she was sitting on. Moving over to Kirito, she reached for the helmet and selected the piece of paper that was sitting on the top. Her eyes widened with surprise as she drew in a breath to announce the name she had drawn.

* * *

"So, what's the deal with your brother?" Keita asked Saphira as they trekked through a dungeon on floor fourteen. The guild leader had drawn the girl's name back at the meeting, and when neither of them objected, they were assigned a slay quest by Kirito on the floor they were currently travelling through.

"What do you mean?" the girl asked over her shoulder. "Did he say something to you before we left?"

"Yeah…" the boy grimaced slightly. "He basically told me that if something bad happened to you while we were out here, he'd toss me off the side of Aincrad. I mean, I know brothers are supposed to be protective and all, but he seems kind of…"

"Extreme?" Saphira finished for him.

"Yeah, and he's super intense all the time," Keita added, glad that she wasn't offended by his criticism of her elder sibling. "I noticed it first last night, and again when I was discussing strategy with Kirito. What's with that?"

Saphira gave him a grim smile before answering, "I'm all he's got left back in the real world. Because of that, he wants to keep me safe, but he goes overboard with it from time to time." After a slight pause, she added, "I think that he's also a little more upset at the team changes than he's letting on."

"Oh yeah, you two were partners before this, right?" Keita asked.

"Since day one," she nodded. "This is good, though. Our friend's death has really shaken him up to where he's starting to think that making new friends is bad just because they might die in combat."

"Well, in a way, I guess I can understand that line of thought," Keita mused aloud. "You don't allow yourself to feel anything for people, so when they die, it doesn't hurt."

"Maybe that works for a little while for some people," Saphira replied firmly as she stopped on the road to face Keita directly. "But at our cores, human beings were made to seek out fellowship. No one really wants to be alone forever."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Keita grinned at his new teammate. He went to continue on the path, but a tug on his sleeve from his companion stopped him again. "What's up?" he asked as he turned back to face her.

"Can I ask you for a favor?" Saphira asked him gravely.

"Uh… sure?" he answered uncertainly.

"Mataras is going to be obstinate, stubborn, and contradictory just because he can," the girl said, keeping her hazel eyes locked onto his brown ones. "You're probably going to want to punch him at some point."

"Is the favor me not punching him?" Keita grinned lightly.

"Not entirely," she replied.

* * *

"Here's to a long partnership!" Ducker smiled brightly as he pulled out a silver chalice from the treasure chest he had unlocked.

"Ooh, is that a rare find?" Kiriha asked excitedly as she eyed the gleaming cup in his hand.

"Nope!" he said cheerfully. "It ain't rare, so most people just sell it to NPC's for some money. I need to collect four more of these."

"Why?" she asked, a little deflated at the news that they had just spent the last thirty minutes on the floor five dungeon for what was apparently a relatively common artifact. "I thought I was supposed to help you level up!"

"You are," he grinned as he stashed the cup in his inventory. "My lock picking skill increases every time I use it, even on early floor loot like this. But there's a little more to why I wanna find more of these."

"Trying to make a complete set?" she guessed.

"Almost," he laughed, his blue eyes alight with mirth. "This cup is the first thing I managed to get out of a treasure chest. I thought about selling it at first, but then I decided I'd rather have a keepsake. For a while, I just let it sit in my inventory, but then I had an even better idea. I foraged until I'd found five of them, so I could share them with my guild mates. Now whenever we have a drink, I see these cups and I'm reminded of how my friends support me."

"So you only give these to guild mates?" Kiriha asked.

"Yep!" the young man said cheerfully as he stood up straight. "Didn't you notice that our cups were different than yours last night?"

"Not really," the girl admitted. "I was more focused on you guys, I guess."

"D'aw…" Ducker groaned. "I worked hard to get those cups, and no one even notices…"

* * *

" _Why did we think this was a good idea?!_ " Tetsuo screamed as he and Kirito dashed out of a forest, a swarm of more than two-dozen wasps buzzing angrily after them.

"I don't know, but the next time someone asks me to be in charge of field work, I'm saying no!" Kirito yelped as he ducked a venomous stinger.

* * *

Rivka stabbed her spear into the midsection of the bear monster that had appeared to bar her and her partner's path. "Go!" she grunted as she shoved the creature back. Since it was floor seventeen, it wasn't anything too strong, certainly nothing she couldn't handle on her own seeing as she was level thirty-eight. However, establishing her superior strength was not the point of this exercise- it was to help her align her battle patterns with her new partner.

The follow-up came much slower than she was used to. Sasamaru was no Asuna when it came to reaction times, though to be fair, very few in the front lines could match her speed, much less in the lower floors of the game. She tried to keep her expectations in check, but she was still a little annoyed that Sasamaru took so long to get into position and execute the attack skill.

 _Shrack!_ His spear drove home, close to the wound that she had delivered the beast, and within a second, its health bar vanished, followed by the creature itself.

The green-clothed spearman had the grace to look embarrassed as he turned back to face Rivka, rubbing the back of his head with a nervous grin. "Sorry about the long switch time," he apologized. "I'm not used to the forward moving so fast, since Tetsuo mainly invests in his STR stat. I was caught off-guard. Promise I'll do better next time."

"Sure," Rivka nodded, forcing herself to remember that he wasn't used to a faster playing field like she was. Still, Rivka wasn't usually a forward player, and it made her a little uncomfortable, having her role switched so suddenly, even though the logic behind the change was sound. "We managed to kill it, and not die in the process. That's what counts, right?" she said to him.

"Yeah, I guess so," he answered, his smile still nervous in nature. "I um… Look, I heard that your partner was the one who died, so I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I can't replace her. She sounded amazing, from what the others were saying about her. I know I must be a pretty big disappointment compared to her, right?"

His words caught Rivka off-guard. She hadn't expected him to bring up her fallen comrade, much less apologize for his inadequate skill as a combat partner. While she felt that it was inappropriate that he bring up Asuna's death, she did understand that it wasn't meant in a way to hurt her. He seemed genuinely ashamed of the fact that he couldn't provide the support that she was used to.

She frowned and asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

Sasamaru laughed lightly and gestured at her vaguely, saying, "It's written all over your body language. I've never seen Keita or any of the others look at me like that- looking disappointed in my work. We all are as supportive as we can be, even when we know one of us messed up."

Rivka's mouth set in a grim line and she started to say something, but the boy headed her off and quickly added, "I'm not upset, don't worry. Your standards would be higher than ours, seeing as you made it up to the front lines, and we haven't yet. Thing is, we need to learn from that and stop being so relaxed if we really want to get up to the top like you guys."

"You're being too hard on yourself," she said and gently as she could manage. "Kirito wanted us to join with the Moonlit Black Cats because he felt like we could all stand to learn from one another. Which means that while yeah, your battle timing could do with some improving, I suppose I could stand to lighten up a little."

"Hey, you're more fun to be around than your friend that likes to dress in red," Sasamaru grinned happily. "Does he have any chill?"

"Not since the day I've known him," Rivka sighed. "I feel bad for his partner, she seems like the most laid-back out of all you guys…"

* * *

"So," I muttered as I trekked on the mountain path with my new partner to my left and a pace behind me. It was the first word I had said to her since we left town after lunch, and we had been walking for a good fifteen minutes. Although in that entire time, she hadn't volunteered to start a conversation, either.

"So…?" Sachi repeated with a questioning inflection on the word.

"Why do you let others speak for you?" I asked bluntly.

"Wh-what do you mean?" she asked timidly.

I turned a baleful eye on her and said in an exasperated tone, "Oh come on, it's not that hard of a question. Last night, when Keita was saying he wanted to switch you to the sword and shield, you only put up token resistance. However, you clearly don't want to be a forward, so why let him talk over you?"

"Well, he's got more gaming experience than I do," she answered softly. "He knows what our guild needs better than I could, so if he really thinks something is a good idea, then I should go with it…" She trailed off a little bit at the end, which left me unconvinced that she believed her own words.

I looked back up at the path ahead of us and said, "Come up here."

"Huh?"

"I don't like having to look over my shoulder every time I want to talk to you," I said shortly. "So please come walk next to me so I don't have to look back at you."

"B-But you're the forward player," she protested.

"Trust me, I can intercept anything on this floor before it hits you," I said calmly. I had re-enabled Dragon Blood earlier that day- since we were now guild mates, not to mention field partners, I figured it would be good for her to become familiar with the peculiarity of my unique battle skill. I had accordingly equipped my _Shinso_ blade to my back and stashed some throwing knives on my waist- which I finally had a proper belt for- and up my sleeves. I'd had both my new belt and red jacket handmade by an old seamstress friend of Asuna's. They were costly, but the stats were good and the alterations were exactly to my liking.

Sachi didn't know about my unique skill as of yet, but she knew that other than Kirito, I was the best fighter on our team. So why was it with clear hesitation that she came up to walk next to me?

"Have I said something to offend you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.

"No," she said quickly.

"Then why do you seem inclined to disliking me?" I searched her face as I asked, watching for any sign of what could be bothering her.

Her eyes flicked up to mine for the briefest moment before she answered, "You're different from your friends… It's not that I don't like you, it's just that I honestly don't know what to make of you."

"Different?" I asked, curious. I thought I had an idea of what she was talking about, but I wanted to be sure.

"They seem like they all want to be happy, to move on from the loss of your friend," she said in a voice that was little more than a whisper. "You don't."

I stopped in place, a little stunned by the last two words. "You think I don't want to be happy?" I asked, baffled.

"Not really, and I get why," she said as she too, stopped walking, though she refused to meet my gaze. "I… had a friend. She also died, not long ago. I met her in-game, so Keita and the others didn't know her from the real world like we do each other."

She paused, and I muttered, "That's how it was with Asuna."

"Yes, I heard," she said softly. "It was nice, wasn't it? Making a friend in this world, even though we were basically told that we would all die in here… Made it feel like we could have a life like we used to… Meet new people, make new memories… then this death game took her away, and we're slapped with the cold reality that we're probably never going to get to leave…" She hugged herself and added in a trembling voice, "You know, don't you? We're going to die here, in this stupid game." I could see tears beginning to fall from her eyes, and I felt a surge of anger well up within me at the sight of her looking so unhappy and defeated.

When asked later what possessed me to speak the way I did next, I could never deliver a straight answer. All I could say was that I wasn't going to stand idly by while this kid was scared out of her mind.

"Wrong," I said tightly, and she looked up miserably at me. "We've lost people and time to this game, yeah. That does _not_ mean that we're automatically going to be counted among the dead- not if we fight back against both the system and idea that it is stronger than we are."

"But it _is_ stronger than we are," Sachi protested, shuddering.

"So what?" I shot back. "We can grow, the system can't. It has parameters that it cannot break because in the end, it is just a program. We are human beings, which means that no matter our situation, no matter how binding our chains, we can learn how to break them."

"Some chains can't be broken," Sachi refuted. "If someone as talented as your friend couldn't make it, why should someone like me, a girl without any special skills, be able to escape this world alive?"

"Given enough time and dedication, any prison can be escaped," I replied quickly. "And it helps when you have a team working with you. You don't have to do it alone." I held out my hand for her to take as I added, "I'll see to it that you make it home, Sachi. But you have to work with me if I'm going to effectively help you."

She looked up at me, eyes a little wide despite the tears that fell from them. "Why would you promise that?" she asked. "Do you really think it's possible that a nobody like me could survive?"

"You're not nobody," I said sternly as my hand dropped. "You've got four good friends that care about you, and that makes you somebody. I don't know what your real life is like, but I'm sure you have a family that would miss you if you died- that makes you somebody. Lastly, whether it's by the decree of fate, God's Hand, or just coincidence, you're my field partner now. That means your life has meaning for me." I paused to let my words sink in before I repeated, "You're not nobody."

"You… really think I can make it?" she whispered. "I don't have to die in this game?"

"I do," I answered as strongly as I could. My hand rose again, extending towards the frightened girl. "If you're willing to work with me, I can either protect you until the last day in this game, or I can turn you into a fighter that will help bring this castle crashing down on top of Kayaba. Either way, I'll see you through this thing."

She looked down at my hand, seemingly tempted to take it, but she hesitated again. "Why?" she asked again. "Why would you offer this to me?"

I thought carefully about how to phrase my answer before I opened my mouth to speak. "I can't stand to see one more person beaten by this game," I replied. "You don't have to die for this game to win, and I'm determined to see it lose at every chance I can get to beat it. If you give up, resign yourself to these fatalistic thoughts, this game has already beaten you. I refuse to see that happen. You're my partner, so not only am I in a position to prevent that, it's my duty to do so. Plus…" I allowed a grim smile on my face as I said, "You've befriended Saphira. I can hardly let a friend of my sister go to such a bad way, can I?"

Her lips quivered into a half-smile as she replied, "I guess not. …You really care about your sister, don't you?"

"More than anything," I nodded immediately. "She's the only family I have left, and my closest friend. It's because I want to protect her that I want to defeat this game so badly."

"She's lucky to have somebody that cares about her so much," Sachi said with more than a hint of sadness.

I felt like there was more to that statement than its face value, but I could come back to that another time- or maybe I would be better off mentioning it to Saphira, she might be able to make more sense of it. For now, I had a more pressing matter.

"Look, I know things are hard, but I _can_ help you through it," I told her, drawing her attention back to the original topic. "But I need to know what it is that you want. More importantly, _you_ need to know what you want. Do you want me to shield you in the dungeons, or do you want to learn how to bring down this game alongside the rest of the Cats?" I looked down pointedly at my hand before adding, "Or would you rather just stay in a safe zone the rest of our time here, and let this game win?"

She stared at my hand before whispering, "I don't want to fight… but I don't want to lose any more to this game than I have… Would I have to be a forward player like Keita wants me to be?"

"No," I answered. "You don't. You can become strong without being a stab unit. And as long as we're partners, I'll train you to the best of my abilities so that you never have to be afraid that you're going to die in this game ever again."

"You promise?" she asked hesitantly.

"On my life," I swore solemnly. "You will make it to see the real world again."

Trembling, she reached out and grasped my hand. "Teach me how to fight," she whispered. "Teach me how to face my fear of this game."

I gave her a fierce grin in response. "All right," I said, "First step- let's figure out your weapon."

"I-I have a spear…" she mumbled.

"That you use more as a walking stick than a weapon," I replied, gesturing to the object in question as I released her hand, and furthermore, how she was currently leaning on it for support even though she had nothing wrong with her legs. The problem, I knew, lay more in her subconscious inability to be self-confident manifesting itself in this habit.

And the best way to break a habit, I knew, was to take away its chance to repeat itself altogether. Opening my menu to scroll through my inventory, I muttered, "Let's see how you hold one of these…"

* * *

We gathered back at the inn in Taft for dinner. Some of our quests took longer than others, so we filtered back in gradually, the first to arrive being Keita and Saphira, and the last- surprisingly- were Kirito and Tetsuo, both of them looking like they'd run the circumference of Aincrad.

"I think my left foot is still numb," I heard the black-clothed swordsman mutter as he sat next to Keita, who was having a lively chat with Saphira and Ducker. I was seated between Sachi and Kiriha, the latter of whom was sitting next to her partner for the day, so I had to strain a little bit to hear what they were discussing.

"What happened to you two?" Keita asked, sounding surprised at the state that his Vice Commander and formerly strongest player were in.

"We managed to collect enough stingers to finish the quest," Tetsuo answered as he absently rubbed his backside, obviously from the memory of an injury he must have sustained earlier in the day. "We just might have spent half the day running from the entire swarm that we attracted because I forgot that Kirito was playing forward…"

Keita glanced a question at Kirito, who winced and shrugged simultaneously. "My fault, really," he said. "I aggro'd a group of wasps before clearing it with Tetsuo, and when I looked back, I realized that we had both done basically the same thing. Before we knew it, half the forest was out to get us. We had to run for it and pick them off as we went."

Before I could stop myself, I grinned and interjected, "Sounds like that _stung_ a bit."

Half the table looked over at me, apparently not realizing that I had been listening in. Tetsuo was the first to recover, though. "Really, man?" he asked, exasperated. "A pun?"

"Sorry if it _bugged_ you," I replied, my smirk widening into a full grin.

"Please stop," Kirito groaned.

"No way, this is golden!" Ducker laughed, apparently amused by my play on words. Fixing his wide eyes on me, he insisted, "Come on, tell me you got more of those!"

"I'd _duck_ out before he gets on a roll, pal," my sister chimed in, causing Ducker and the others to look over at her with a measure of surprise.

"Oh jeez, there's two of them," Kirito sighed heavily as he put his head in his hands.

Ignoring him, I raised an eyebrow at Saphira and replied, "I call _fowl_ play on that one."

"Sorry to ruffle your feathers," she shot back.

"Please stop," Rivka groaned- she knew where this was heading.

"Seems like our friend wants to fly the coop," Saphira chirped.

"I guess we're gonna be on eggshells," I agreed.

"Wow, how long have you been waiting to hatch that one?" she sniggered. By now, most of the original Black Cats were laughing themselves silly, with the exception of Sachi, who was looking thoroughly bewildered by this turn of events.

Keeping an eye on my partner, I continued on to say, "I thought it was rather _egg_ -cellent."

"Boo!" shouted Tetsuo, though he was laughing too.

"I think we're cracking them up, wanna call it quits?" my sister asked.

"What's the matter, chicken?" I answered. I noticed Sachi's lips twitching upwards.

"No, but I think this guild is starting to realize what a _cat_ astrophic addition we're going to be," Saphira replied without skipping a beat.

"Wow, no _paws_ for effect?" I said, trying to contain the laughter that was threatening to bubble up inside me.

"Stop…" Kirito pleaded.

"You gotta be _kitten_ me with that," she answered as we continued to ignore our comrade.

"No, no, this is not the end of my _tail_ ," I chuckled. Around us, some of the cats were beginning to place bets on which one of us would stop first.

"That was weak," she argued, but before I could call her on not managing to reply with a pun, she added, "And with all these bad jokes, it's gonna take you a while to get out of the dog house."

"How often do they do this?" Keita whispered aside to Rivka.

"Too often," she replied. "Though since I hadn't seen one of these since we arrived in-game, I was beginning to hope that I'd heard the last pun…"

" _Never!_ " Saphira and I cried as we turned to face Rivka simultaneously. Then, facing each other, I quickly said, "Don't _parrot_ me!"

"Don't try to _weasel_ your way out with a technicality!" she cried.

"Stop trying to _hog_ all the good ones!"

"You just-! Uh… Aw, dang." Saphira slumped in her seat, defeated.

"Ha!" I crowed. "No _lion_ about who just won!"

"So they used to do this all the time?" Sasamaru asked Rivka as I relaxed back in my seat and raised my chalice in a mock toast to my victory.

"Wait 'till Christmas," she muttered. "They'll be insufferable."

As the others began taking up their own conversations again, I noticed with some satisfaction, that while my new partner wasn't laughing like the others had been, she was still smiling to herself. After a moment, she met my gaze, and I grinned at her as I raised my cup slightly towards her, my heart feeling lighter than it had in weeks.

* * *

 **Mataras: Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out.**

 **Kirito: It's okay man. You've had quite a bit going on. Cancer removal from your back, heart problems, nerve damage in one arm, a new baby at home... How are you still standing?!**

 **Mataras: Really not sure most days. I wish I could say that I will be able to go back to regular updates, but unfortunately, that won't be the case for some time. All I can say is that I'll put out new chapters as they come.**

 **Saphira: Mind if we ask a couple of questions since this seemed to be a pretty pivotal chapter in terms of how things are going to be changing to the original story?**

 **Mataras: I thought I established that when Asuna died.**

 **Kirito: I think she's talking about how you had us admit that we're higher level players when originally, I concealed the fact.**

 **Mataras: Ah. Well, I never really saw the point in lying to them about it, and since I was there to speak up, I did. The rest kind of fills itself out, in my opinion anyway. Besides, one of the points of this story is to fix things that I saw as major flaws with the original canon- this being one of those flaws.**

 **Saphira: So will this change things significantly for the fate of the Black Cats?**

 **Mataras: Do you really expect me to give you a straight answer on that?**

 **Saphira: Meh, was worth a try.**

 **Kirito: I have one more questions before we go...**

 **Mataras: Yeah?**

 **Kirito: What was was up with that cringefest at the end of the chapter?!**

 **Mataras: Cringefest?! How dare you!**

 **Saphira: Next time- Rising Sun, Fallen Moon**


	9. Rising Sun Fallen Moon

**A/N: Merry Christmas, I'm still working on this story! That's right, it ain't over 'till I say it's over!**

 **In addition to this new chapter, I've got other Christmas goodies for you guys in the form of a new chapter for Saiyan Tail (my DBZ x Fairy Tail crossover), and the beginning to a new sequel for one of your guys' favorites, my Fire Emblem x SAO crossover, Fire Sword! Look for the story about the next generation of Shepherds under the title Fire Sword: Shrouded Destiny.**

 **Now for this tale! It's been a while since I released a chapter for it, but I only want to put work into this when I'm confident I'm at my best. That being said, I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say when Mataras takes his first real step toward becoming the infamous Red Swordsman that all have been eager to see return. This chapter in particular features a story based on an event in my own life, specifically about my own training as a martial artist.**

 **Bottom line is, I hope you all enjoy this gift, and have a Merry Christmas!**

 **OP Song: Nanatsu No Taizai (original or cover by Nathan Sharp)**

* * *

 _For every sunrise  
_ _That marks a new day  
_ _The moon lies in wait  
_ _To send the dead on their way_

* * *

Rising Sun, Fallen Moon

Sachi fell to the grass, panting with exhaustion. A long, heavy-bladed dagger fell from her grip as she did, sticking itself in the soft turf. The sun overhead reflected on the shiny blade, unencumbered by any clouds on the late spring day.

I raised an eyebrow in mild reproach, saying just loud enough for her to hear, "Exaggerating much? We can't run out of breath in these bodies."

"Habit… I guess," she panted. "Besides, your stamina must be way higher than mine… You know, being fifteen levels higher than me?"

I considered her words for a moment before acknowledging that she did have a point with a nod. "Fair enough," I replied as I sat in front of her, crossing my legs as I rested on the grass. "I suppose we can break for a bit." She and I were in the middle of a weapon's practice session, something I had insisted that we do once a day so that she could level up her dagger skill faster than if she just went on field quests.

Since she didn't want to use a sword and shield as a forward, I had suggested that she make the change to using a dagger. Players that used them were light on their feet, making quick, darting attacks to draw the attention of a mob, but retreating behind the safety of the forwards and tanks before they could really become entangled in a fight. Sachi had been positively afraid of the idea of angering mobs at first, but once I was able to show our effective interference plays, she slowly began to grow accustomed to the role. Plus she was beginning to develop her 'thrown sword' skill, which would allow her to throw smaller projectiles- or even her dagger if she chose- and get a mob's attention from a distance.

Still, being mindful of her fear of being destroyed by a monster, I encouraged her to focus less on her attack stat, and put more points into her agility and defense stats. This gave her greater reflexes, and even if she did get hit, she wouldn't have to worry about her health as much as someone like Kirito or I would, since we focused more on our speed and attack power.

I had been training her in combat, with occasional input from Kirito, for about a month now as we had continued to help the Black Cats increase their levels at an accelerated pace. Where they had once been twenty levels junior to us, now they were anywhere from ten to fifteen behind, Tetsuo and Keita being the strongest members of the original group, with Sachi lagging a bit due to having to develop an entirely new weapon's skill set. Still, they were making considerable progress, and our own growth had only been stunted by a relatively small margin.

I realized that Sachi had asked me a question, so I snapped myself out of my reverie and asked, "Sorry, could you repeat that? My mind was wandering."

The girl sighed quietly, then said, "I was just asking if you think I'm making progress fast enough to keep up with the others… Most days I feel like I've been handed the baton in a relay race for the Olympics- and I'm in a wheelchair."

I snorted in an unsuccessful attempt to smother my laughter. I couldn't help it- the way she had phrased her insecurities was too funny. However, when I noticed her folding her legs up to her chest and hugging them as she often did when she was upset, I forced myself to sober up and answer her. "Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed," I began. "And to answer your question, I think you're making fine progress. Sure, you're still a few levels behind the others, but that's to be expected when you make a shift in style as drastic as we're having you do now. All things considered, you're doing a great job. I couldn't ask any more of you."

"Oh…" she said, a small smile coming to her face as the hint of a blush colored her cheeks. "That's good, I guess." She paused, then added with a slightly wider grin, "Also, I don't think I have much more to give. You're a strict teacher."

"Hey, I'm just going off of what I know for teaching combat, which is mostly coming from my sensei back home," I replied with a shrug. "He wasn't exactly the most relaxed teacher, either. He'd make us do twenty push-ups every time we were off our designated spot for a completed kata by even a foot."

She raised her head from its usual slumped position, her eyes bright with inquisitiveness. "So how many times did you have to do that?" she asked.

"Honestly?" I chuckled in response. "I've lost count. But after doing the forms a few hundred times, you get pretty good at ending up where you're supposed to be. …That, or you get really good at doing pushups."

"What is he like, your sensei?" Sachi asked, apparently eager to know more.

I raised my eyebrow again and said, "Are you just trying to delay getting back to weapon's practice?"

"N-No!" the timid girl exclaimed. When I kept the eyebrow raised, she relented and said, "Well, maybe a little… But I also really do want to know more about you, seeing as we're field partners and all… And… I guess I'm just used to being able to talk about IRL stuff since I know Keita and the others from our school."

I dropped the eyebrow in favor of a grin as I told her, "No worries. Our group did the same before we joined the Cats, so I can relate." Pausing to gather my thoughts for a moment, I eventually said, "My teacher's name is Omine-sensei. He's an old war vet who's seen the worse side of combat- he got some shrapnel in his leg from a bomb during the Vietnam War that's kind of stuck in his body now, but he acts like it's not even there. He's from Okinawa, practices and teaches Shorin-Ryu Karate. He's a strict man, like I said, but I like that about him. He doesn't allow for repeated mistakes, and hates excuses almost more than anything. He's great at spotting any flaws in a technique, and he doesn't hesitate to call you out in front of everybody else when he does. But, he also does a great job at showing you how to correct it."

A memory surfaced, prompting me to add with a more sheepish grin, "There was a day where we were practicing with our chaku, specifically an overhead strike that begins by holding one of the sticks above your shoulder with your right hand, and the other half underneath your armpit with your left hand across your body." I positioned my hands to grip an imaginary version of the weapon to demonstrate. "The technique is pretty simple- you just let go with the left hand and swing at the collarbone or head of an opponent with your right." Sachi nodded, seeming to understand how it was supposed to go. "Well, somehow, as our class was launching the technique according to his call, I managed to clock myself in the head with the stick that started out under my arm."

Sachi's eyes widened as she gasped and said, "No way, you actually…"

"I did," I said, snorting with barely restrained laughter. "I got a concussion and everything- don't even remember what happened for the rest of that day, really. The best part was, Sensei told me when I came back to class that he had never, in his entire career, seen someone manage that. Apparently he spent a half-hour with a foam chaku trying to replicate the incident, but couldn't for the life of him figure it out."

"I find it hard to imagine you screwing up so badly," she said with a bright grin. "You're so cool and confident…"

"Eh, I don't think 'cool' is how most people would describe me," I said while scratching the back of my head. "I feel like more often than not, 'arrogant' and 'hot-headed' are used in the same sentence as my name."

"Well, I think you're cool," Sachi said softly.

"Pfft, you didn't even hear the icing on the cake for my colossal screw-up," I told her, a grin tugging at my lips again.

"Wait, there's more?" she asked, surprised.

"Oh-ho, yeah," I replied. "The real kicker is that not even three weeks later, during chaku practice…" I left the statement unfinished, waiting for her to put the pieces together.

It took her a couple of seconds, but her eyes widened and she sat up straight. "You didn't," she said, her shoulders beginning to shake.

"I did," I deadpanned, though I could feel my sides beginning to heave as well.

"No!"

"Same exact thing," I confirmed. "Same side as the first time, and it even clocked my head on the exact same spot. Sensei Omine said that he might have to stop letting me near his chaku. I think he might have been joking since he didn't actually stop me from continuing weapon's practice, but I worked extra hard to make sure I never did that again."

Sachi could no longer contain herself. She burst into peals of helpless laughter, the sound ringing across the open field on the outskirts of Taft where we had been practicing. I laughed too, but more than amusement, I felt proud in that moment.

 _I finally made her laugh,_ I thought with a warm glow of pleasure.

* * *

" _Surprise_!" Everyone yelled as we stepped into the bar at Taft, causing me to yank my sword out of its sheath and get into a combat stance before I could completely comprehend what my eyes and ears were telling me.

My friends and guild mates were all laughing at me from underneath a banner that read 'Happy Birthday!' Each of them was holding a drink in their hand, and the biggest table in the establishment was lined with tasty-looking food. There were a few streamers to complete the look, and of course, a big chocolate cake in the middle of it all.

"I think you'll be wanting a smaller knife to cut that cake, bro," Saphira laughed as she came up to me and moved the blade of _Shinso_ to the side. "Happy Birthday." She gave me a brief hug before moving aside to let the others approach.

"My birthday was days ago," I protested as I sheathed the weapon, still feeling a little confused. Then another thought occurred to me, and I added, "I honestly forgot about it, with everything that's going on…"

"Yeah, well, Rivka and I have been working on our cooking skills so we can have parties like this, and your birthday was the first one to come up," my sister grinned at me.

"So I'm just your guinea pig?" I deadpanned.

"Yep!" she replied cheerfully. "Now come on, loosen up! It's your birthday, after all."

As she began leading me toward the others, I looked back at Sachi, who was smiling happily at me. "You were totally stalling for this," I accused her.

"Rivka asked me to," she nodded. "Everyone was really excited to do this for you."

"You are all too nice for your own good," I grumbled under my breath.

* * *

Despite my initial complaints, I wound up having a lot of fun along with everyone else. Saphira even managed to convince Ion, Angel, Klein, Agil, and Argo to show up for a couple of hours.

It was nice, getting to just hang out and stuff ourselves with great food- Saphira wasn't kidding, she and Rivka must have worked overtime on their cooking skill to get the food to taste that good- all while swapping stories about our different childhoods and what we hoped to do with our futures. Everything about that night was so fun, so normal.

It was almost as though for that one night, we forgot that were trapped in the Death Game. We were just a group of high schoolers, having a birthday party.

* * *

It was later that night, when nearly everyone else had gone to bed, that I was approached by Rivka. "Thanks for setting this up," I told her. "I really appreciate it."

"It was your sister's idea, originally," she shrugged. "I just helped with the decorations and cooking."

"So basically, the entire party," I chuckled slightly. "Besides, I know the cooking skill takes a stupid long time to level up. Where you're at now, as fast as you got there… How much sleep have you lost?" I added the last part as a thought struck me.

"It helps me cope," she shrugged again. "Whenever I can't sleep, I practice my cooking since it'd be stupid to go out and practice in the fields alone."

I frowned- this was news to me. "You've been having trouble sleeping?" I inquired in a quiet tone.

"A little, yeah," she admitted. "Don't act like you can sleep soundly, though. I've heard Saphira run over to your room in the middle of the night to help you calm down from a nightmare one time too many."

I cringed, recoiling a half-pace as the words were delivered. "You, uh… You know about that?" I asked.

"I'm surprised everyone else doesn't wake up from how much growling and shouting you do in your sleep," she told me. "Her death is still bothering you that much?"

I hesitated, then nodded. Aside from Saphira, Rivka was still my closest friend. I never lied to her, and even if I wanted to, she would know I was. "Every time I close my eyes to rest, I see Asuna," I admitted. "Not how she was when she was alive, though. It's always that scared, desperate look in her eyes right before she dies that I see. The real problem, though, is that it's not always her that I'm seeing in my dreams."

"What do you mean?" she inquired with a frown, arms folded.

"I see Saphira die in front of me, time and time again," I said as I sat down heavily at one of the bar stools. "I see _you_ cut down, Kirito, Sachi, the other Cats. I'm never fast enough to save you guys. I always fall short of being able to protect you. And when I wake up, I can only ever wonder how long it'll be before the dream becomes reality?"

"I'd like to say that you're being a fatalist," Rivka sighed heavily. "But the truth is that I have the exact same fears, and we're having them for a good reason. Asuna's death showed us the harsh truth that none of us are invincible. We could have the best gear, the best intel, max out all of our levels and skills, and we could still be taken down by bad luck or a misstep on our part."

"We shouldn't have to live like this," I muttered as I clenched my right fist. "We shouldn't be living on a razor's edge, making decisions that affect the lives of others besides our own. We should be going to school, figuring out what universities we're going to attend, and making mistakes that get us grounded, not killed."

Rivka placed her hand on my fist, the warm grip forcing my fingers to relax reflexively. "We might be living in a prison, but we can still live, Michael," she told me firmly. "Even out there, we're not guaranteed tomorrow. Who knows? You might have even…" Her voice trailed off and she looked away, refusing to meet my eyes anymore as she released my hand.

"I might have what?" I asked, feeling a little confused. "Rivka, what-?"

"You might have died in the accident that killed your parents," she said stiffly, stopping me before I could take a step toward her. "If you hadn't been in here, you and Victoria would have died, too." She turned back to look at me, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. "That's all _I've_ been able to think about since Kiriha came here and told us what happened! Not about the people dying to clear this game, or even just taking their own lives! I was sad that Asuna died, of course, but the truth is that I felt relief when I realized that we had lost her instead of you!"

I blinked, my eyes wide as she continued to let out her pent-up frustration and grief. "Relief!" she laughed as the first tears began to leak from her eyes. " _That's_ what I felt when I realized that the girl whose back I was supposed to have was dead! Not anger, not regret. I was _relieved_. And now I can't stop thinking about how I let her down, and about how I can't stand the thought of losing you, too!"

"Reiko, I-"

"No, don't you dare!" she shouted as she backed away, holding out an arm to keep me back. "Don't you dare tell me that I won't lose you to this game! It could take any of us, and we both know it!"

"Reiko!" I nearly shouted, stepping forward quickly and seizing her hand in mine. "Calm down, please."

The girl heaved several deep breaths while her body began to tremble violently. "I'm sorry," she sniffed as she dashed at her eyes with her free hand. "It's just that I've been thinking these awful things this whole time, and worse, trying to justify them to myself… I didn't want you to know, and it's been easier for me, keeping you at arm's length…"

Suddenly I realized why it was that she had been acting more distant toward me for the last few weeks. _She wasn't angry at me for losing my temper,_ I thought dully. _She's been doing what I wanted to do all along… Trying to keep her feelings contained by pushing away everyone else. Now I see why Victoria and Kirito wouldn't leave me alone. But how on earth did we not notice what was happening with her?_

I berated myself savagely for not realizing what had been going on with my friend sooner. _And she thinks she's the selfish one?_ I thought angrily. _My oldest friend in all the world is suffering right in front of me this whole time, but I've been too wrapped up in my own problems and training Sachi to take any notice of her…_

"This whole time…" she whispered. "I've been… _happy_ … that we got stuck in here. Because it meant that you get to stay with me a little longer. I've been so selfish, hardly giving a thought to the people paying the price for my relief and joy."

"That's… human nature," I said at length, trying to measure my words carefully. Now that she had opened up the reason as to why she had been acting distant toward me, I didn't want to give her a reason to maintain that distance. "We're selfish, Reiko. You thought that you were the only one who was focusing on yourself? Look at me- I'm supposed to be your best friend, but I never once asked you if you were doing okay since Asuna died because I was too self-absorbed to care about how you felt."

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?" she sniffed again.

"I'm just trying to tell you that you're not alone," I groaned, cursing my lack of tact in delicate situations. "I'm no more innocent in this tragedy than you are. And that car wreck didn't take me or Victoria- we're both here for you, even if I haven't been available as much as I should be lately."

Rivka's eyes welled up with fresh tears before she yanked me forward. Before I knew it, she had buried her face into my shoulder, leaving me with little other option than to wrap my arms around her back a trifle awkwardly.

As we maintained the contact for a few moments, I became aware of a strange sensation. It wasn't anything tangible, really; it was more of a change in the atmosphere than anything. Reiko and I had hugged plenty of times in the past, but most of the time they were side-on embraces, nothing so prolonged as this. It was strange, how warm I felt from the simple contact, but it wasn't an unbearable heat- more like the comforting temperature of a soft bed after a long day spent hunting in the cold mountain dungeons. It was… _familiar_ , was the only word I could think of to describe it.

"I can't promise that I won't go anywhere," I finally said when I found my voice again. "But I can tell you that while I am here, I will be _here_ for you."

"Promise?" she sniffed, pulling back to look at me.

"I promise," I nodded as I met her gaze. _Have her eyes always had green flecks in them?_ I wondered as I found myself getting lost in her brown orbs. _They're… really pretty, now that I see them so close…_

"Michael?" Rivka asked.

"Hmm?" I muttered absently.

"You're staring," she stated, her cheeks coloring red.

I paused my train of thought, pulled back until I was holding her by the shoulders and cocked my head slightly at her. "I'm being weird, aren't I?" I asked bluntly.

"Just a little," she nodded, her cheeks flushing a bit deeper in color. "But… I've always appreciated your honesty, even when you come across a little too strong for most people's tastes."

"Better to be taken as a truthful ass than a spineless liar," I shrugged.

In spite of herself, Reiko smiled, just a little bit. She pulled away and went to turn around, then stopped. She turned back to me and said, "I remembered one of my last conversations with your dad."

"What'd you guys talk about?" I asked, clearing my throat to try and rid it of the lump that had settled there.

"We talked about you and Victoria," she answered. "I remember asking him at one point if it was possible to sum up each of your personalities in just one word, with everything that he knew about the both of you. He just laughed at first, but then he actually gave me an answer for each of you."

"I'm guessing Victoria's was 'kind," I replied with a slight smile of my own.

"Close, but not quite," she chuckled quietly. "He called her 'forgiving'. You were… 'blunt."

"Is there a point to all this, or is my birthday present getting to know that my dad always thought that I was a jerk?" I asked dryly.

"He called you blunt, not a jerk- though you do blur the lines pretty often," she replied. "No, I'm trying to tell you that you've always been good at cutting through to the heart of things. You don't waste words when something needs to be said, and that's something that not a lot of people are capable of these days. I admire that about you- and I think your father did, too."

"Oh," I said, at a loss for what to say. After a moment, I added, "Is, uh…? Is there anything left on the rollercoaster that is our emotions this evening?"

"I think that covers it," she said with a sad smile. "Well, aside from one thing. I need to thank you."

"Thank me?" I asked dumbly. "I haven't done anything."

"You listened," Rivka said with a small shake of her head. "That's all I really needed tonight. Then to top it off, you gave me some hope. Thank you for everything, Michael."

"You're welcome?" I replied. "Glad I could help, at any rate…" Looking at her suspiciously, I added, "You gonna be okay?"

"I think it's going to be a very long time before any of us are okay," she answered, her smile fading away. "But… this was a good first step, I think. So yeah, someday I'll be alright."

"Baby steps, then," I sighed. "I think that's about all I can handle right now, anyway."

"Baby steps," she repeated. "Better than sitting in the dark and making no progress at all."

Despite our words to support one another, the truth is that life is often one step forward, two steps back; it was only two days later when I took the first true step toward becoming the monster that everyone in Aincrad fears.

* * *

It was another bright and sunny spring day on the eleventh floor of Aincrad, and I was once again training Sachi in the survival arts of our prison-world. We had gotten up early, eaten breakfast just like any other day, passed by some of our guild mates as we always did, and began practicing our techniques on the outskirts of the floor. There was absolutely nothing about that morning to indicate that it was the beginning of a new era.

I was in the middle of showing Sachi how to maintain bodily momentum when throwing multiple knives when I heard the clanking of several full-plate armor sets approaching from a direction perpendicular to Taft.

I don't know exactly why this made me pause, but it did. Perhaps it was because I had grown to resent strangers on instinct as a 'beater'. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was too early in the day for any normal party to be returning from an expedition. Even then, the eleventh floor was already well-cleared, so there was little to no need for an expedition at all.

Whatever the case was, my guard was up, and Sachi quickly picked up on my tense energy. "What's wrong?" she asked me nervously.

"Stash your knife and keep a teleport crystal handy," I said in a low tone that brooked no argument while my face settled into a grim mask. "If I tell you to use it, you damn well do what I say, understood?" She nodded wordlessly, my expression and change in tone apparently enough to instill instant obedience from her.

My eyes flicked over to a group of players numbering five, approaching from the east, all of them heavily armed. I kept my hand on the hilt of sword, but did not draw- yet. My tracking skill enhanced my eyesight so that I could see that there were three yellow cursors among them. _Yellow players aren't allowed into town, else they're targeted by NPC's_ , I thought warily. _Makes sense that they'd be all the way out here, I suppose._

"Hey there!" called out a man who looked to be in his early thirties, wearing half armor and a one-handed sword.

I neglected to respond until he was about twenty paces away before calling out, "That's far enough, I think."

"Now, now, I'm not looking for any trouble," the man began, but I cut him off before he could go any further.

"I'll ensure that trouble finds you if you come any closer," I replied in a tightly controlled voice as they came within ten paces of Sachi and I. To my relief, the group halted as I slid my blade partway out of its sheathe.

"Well now, I think we can all agree that there's no need for extra trouble while we're here in Aincrad," the leader said with a friendly smile. "It seems to be plentiful enough without us sharing. Though while we're on the subject of sharing…" He drew his sword with a flourish and pointed it at me, his comrades following suit so that I was faced with two spearheads, a straight sword, a scimitar, and a mace. "How's about you two start sharing whatever it is you've got in your inventory?"

I eyed them all balefully, even though it felt like my heartbeat was pounding in my ears. Trying to sound as confident as possible, I replied, "Robbing a pair of people with no one else in sight? How droll." Sachi edged closer to me, pale, and shaking in fright.

"Money, items, bag, now," demanded one of the spear-wielders. "It's been a lean hunt the last few days, so you'd better hope that whatever you got on you makes us happy enough not kill you."

I glanced at his cursor- which was green- and allowed myself a derisive smile. "Brave talk coming from the guy hiding behind a four-foot pole," I taunted him. "But… as much as you would like me to believe that you could kill me in cold blood, your cursor is green. You haven't killed anybody yet. Trust me when I say you don't want to attempt making me your first victim."

"Big talk coming from a little boy without any backup other than his girlfriend," the spear-wielder snarled.

Both Sachi's and my face went a deep shade of red as I sputtered, "Girlfriend?! What-?! No!" Glancing over at my partner, I added, "No offense, but no!"

She looked as though she were about to say something in agreement, but then her eyes widened and she screamed, "Look out!"

Without thinking, I dashed to the side, though I was a tad too slow. The spear grazed my forearm, leaving a small red scratch on the limb. Whirling about to build momentum, my sword snaked from its sheathe and slashed at where the spear was. The long weapon was cut clean through, breaking in half before shattering into thousands of pixels.

I did not stop at the instrument, though. Without pause, I maintained my speed and momentum as I rushed forward, stabbing my opponent where his heart would have lay. The heavily armored, bad-tempered spear wielder's jaw dropped with shock as he stared at the blade lodged in his ribs. His comrades were likewise taken aback, even the first speaker.

Taking advantage of the confusion, I shouted, "Run, Sachi! Tell the others what's going on and get them over here!" I chanced a glance over my shoulder, and my heart skipped a few beats when I realized that the girl was frozen stiff with fear.

The leader of the yellow players, the only one with a green cursor left in their group, recovered from his surprise first. "Get the girl!" he shouted. "If we capture her, he'll do whatever we say!" His comrades shook themselves out of their stupor and hurried to do as he commanded.

" _I won't let you!_ " A roar that I barely recognized as my own voice rang across the clearing as I tore my blade from the chest of my first attacker and grabbed at a knife that had been stashed in my belt.

"C'mere, girlie!" one of the thieves shouted, lunging at Sachi with outstretched hands, finally eliciting a reaction from her in the form of a scream.

That's when my knife flashed across the space between us, taking him in the neck and knocking him on his side from the force of the throw. "Use that crystal!" I urged her as I erupted into a blur of motion, my sword flicking out faster than I had ever moved it before in order to clash with the scimitar-wielder. "Get out of here!"

The scene quickly dissolved into madness. There were five thieves all rallied against me as I tried to keep them away from my partner. My sword erupted with fire as my Dragon Blood skill became active, the flames spreading to any weapon that I utilized, freeing me to use them however I chose.

Fortunately, Sachi seemed to snap out of her stupor after the third man had tried to attack her directly. Unfortunately, she wasn't doing what I told her to. "I can't just leave you here!" she cried. "You'll die!"

"They can't get my items if they kill me!" I argued as I ran my sword down the length of another thief's mace, cutting off his fingers when there was no crossguard to stop my blade. Left with a useless hand, the mace dropped into the grass before I kicked its owner in the chest, sending him reeling. "Run, Sachi! You can't help me in this fight with your blade, but you can get the others to help me capture these thieves!"

"But I-"

"You promised to do what I asked of you!" I bellowed, cutting her off. "Go, please!" My distraction allowed one of the thieves to put a stab mark in my leg, but I got him back with a severed hand. I heard a choked sob, then the sound of a teleport crystal flashing to life.

A grim ghost of a smile graced my lips before I whirled my sword into a ready stance.

* * *

"How is this guy holding off all five of us?!" the other spear-wielder howled as I jumped over his weapon while hurling a dart at one of his comrades.

"Next time you want to rob somebody with nice-looking gear…" I grunted as I grabbed the shaft of the weapon, wresting it away from its owner with some effort. "Make sure they aren't a member of the assault team!" Then I ran him through with the tool, just managing to duck a wild swipe from another swordsman.

"Dammit, Kaido!" the scimitar-user shouted. "You said everyone from the assault team cleared outta here!"

"They should have!" the leader grumbled. "It doesn't make any sense if he's tellin' the truth!"

During the course of our battle, they had managed to force me to retreat, little by little, until we were near the edge of the map. Despite my best efforts to stay in one place so that Sachi could lead the others back to rescue me, there was only so much I could do when faced with five mid-level players out to take my belongings- or my life, I wasn't so certain anymore.

"Whether this makes sense or not, you're all in the yellow now," I said as I danced outside of their reach, the sky at my back, eyes constantly moving from one enemy to the next as to determine which one of them would attack next. "Two or three more hits from my _Shinso_ , and you're going to meet your maker. I'd rather not do that since my sister would be rather disappointed in me, but it's better than dying myself, or having my stuff stolen, really."

My own health was still in the green, though just barely. My HP auto-regeneration skill wasn't advanced enough to keep up with the pounding I had already endured, but it had certainly kept me in a more comfortable zone than I would have been otherwise.

"No way I'm going to prison!" one of the spear-wielders yelled as he finally broke and ran. "This isn't worth it!"

"Thane, you coward!" Kaido shouted at him.

"Finally, something we agree on," I said dryly before reaching for a particular dagger. Two seconds later it found itself buried in the runner's left calf, the poison I had coated on it rendering him paralyzed instantly. He would only be down for a few minutes, but it would get the job done.

"Lay down your weapons, or it's gonna be a lot worse for you," I said threateningly as I turned back to face his comrades. "That was my only poison knife, which means I can't paralyze the rest of you in order to drag your asses back to the prison. I _will_ kill you if you force me to."

The uncertainty from the beginning of this encounter was gone. I stood victorious against superior numbers, where many others might have fallen or surrendered. Yet I was still in control of myself. That terrible, burning, churning rage that had nearly consumed me when I fought Kibaou was under control. I was still standing tall, and I didn't need my fury to prop me up now.

I could see that the criminals were wavering. They had seen my skill firsthand, and the fact that I was a member of the assault team had obviously shaken them. My guess was that they were used to preying on weaker, mid-level players, and when faced with real skill and power, they were frightened by it. Frightened by me.

Allowing a smug, lazy smile to appear on my face, I raised my sword to point at Kaido and said, "You can surrender, or you can run, but you'll only die tired."

Something in Kaido seemed to snap at that moment, because it was as though the light of reason had left his eyes. He let out a raw scream of rage and desperation and flung himself at me, his sword glowing deep blue.

I sidestepped at the last possible moment, his own momentum carrying him right past me. For good measure, I back-kicked him as he stumbled, trying to turn back and cut at me again. However, in that moment, I forgot just how close to the edge of the map we were.

* * *

My boot connected solidly with his shoulders, ruining his already unstable balance- and sending him screaming over the edge of Aincrad.

My breath caught, my heart stopped.

I could not move but for my eyes, which widened as I saw him go over the edge of our world, into the cloudy void that surrounded us.

My sword dropped from nerveless fingers as I realized that I had finally gone past the point of no return.

I had killed a man.

* * *

The other bandits just stared at me with horror and shock, one of them even falling to his knees and muttering gibberish. I imagine that my own face reflected their expressions in that moment.

For one awful second, I felt myself on the verge of collapsing and dissolving into tears at what I had just done. I had taken the life of another person, sent a soul to be judged by the Lord's throne before its time. I had dared to play judge, jury, and executioner with my carelessness.

Then the moment was past, and that terrible, overwhelming fury that I had thought suppressed clawed its way to the forefront of my consciousness, releasing itself in the sound of a wordless, choked snarl that erupted from my throat. I stamped my boot on the edge of my sword at just the right angle, causing it to ring and flip up into my waiting hand, whereupon it burst into writhing flames once again.

 _It was him or me,_ I realized, feeling my uncertainty harden into a steel resolve. _There is no going back from this… Nor should there be. I will not feel guilty for the decisions I've had to make that circumstance forced upon me. If this is who I am meant to be, then I accept it._

"You should have surrendered when I gave you the chance," I said in a voice that I hardly recognized as my own.

"N-No, wait!" the scimitar-wielder begged, backing away one frightened step at a time.

"This is the land of blade and skill," I stated, ignoring his protests. "Your transgressions will no longer be overlooked."

"He's crazy!" one of the others shouted, rushing at me, even though his voice cracked with fear. "We gotta kill him before he kills any more of us!"

"Hear me," I continued, the only sound registering in my mind being that of my own heartbeat, which pounded like a drum. "I am the swordsman, Mataras."

"R-Rush him, boys!" the swordsman screeched, his face and voice distorted beyond recognition by the terror of one's imminent demise. Spurred on by their own fear, his two companions still capable of fighting moved to encircle and cut me down. "Kill him, _now!_ "

"I now lay thee waste with the Shinso…" A flicker of firelight saw the swordsman's head removed, rendering him into a multitude of lifeless sparkles. "And absolve this world of your contamination." Another movement from my blade, which seemed to dance with delight as it heeded my commands, sent the soul of the first spear-wielder after his friends. "I purge thee." The player wielding a mace tried to cave my head in, so I cut off his tool at the handle, rendering it useless before it disintegrated. Then he too, met his end at my blade. " _Fall._ "

I heard the sound of someone crying nearby, and I briskly walked over to see Thane, the man that had first attacked me, and the one that had tried to run before I put a poisoned knife in his leg. "No…" he sobbed. "Let me go… I don't wanna die… I got a family back… home! It can't just end like this! It can't!"

"I warned you," I said, my voice still all but unrecognizable to my own ears. "I told you not to try and hurt me or my friend, but you didn't listen. There are consequences when you don't listen, Thane."

"Please!" he mewled pathetically. "I don't wanna die!"

"Your preference isn't a factor," I replied flatly. "You tried to cause me and my partner harm. Then you and your band of bully boys tried to kill me. You're a yellow player, while my cursor is still green. If I kill you here and now, no one will be the wiser. You've made your bed- time to lie in it, thief."

I raised my sword to deliver a fatal blow, only for a strong, clear voice to shout, "Stop!" My blade stayed where it was, poised to strike at the back of his neck while I turned to stare at Saphira with flat eyes.

She was standing only a dozen yards away- close enough to have heard the last exchange between my prey and I. So far as I could tell, she had outrun any others that would have come as additional backup. _Which means Kirito was otherwise occupied… good._ He was the only swordsman in our group that I was wary of actually being able to stop me by force on his own.

"He tried to kill me," I said, and had the satisfaction of seeing her recoil in shock when she heard how my voice had changed. "I've had to deal with him and his friends while you took your time in getting here, and now you think you get to decide his sentence? I don't think so."

"It's not your right, either," she replied, back in control of herself. "We've been here before, Brother. If you do this, there is no coming back from it."

"It's cute that you think I still have any choice," I shot back with a cold smile. "Look around, Sis. Sachi told you that there were five of these jokers, right? What do you think happened to them?"

She grimaced, but replied without further hesitation, "I can guess. But as far as I know, you killed them while they had weapons in hand. This isn't the same, Brother. He's defenseless, with no chance to get away if he wanted to. You kill him, and you go right from warrior to murderer."

"Seems rather synonymous to me," I shrugged, returning my gaze to the whimpering coward. "Yet you seem to think that if I kill him while he had a weapon in hand, it's somehow different from ending his life while he's writhing in the dirt like the worm he is? Either way, he's just as dead."

"No," Saphira insisted. "You can let him go. And if there's anything left of the man my parents raised inside this thing you're becoming, you'll do just that. Let justice be served according to the laws of this world, and then we can be rid of him."

"How can there be justice if the world was conceived by a madman?" I snapped. "The only law that matters in here is the law of the sword. Live by it, die by it… Ignore it if you choose, Sister, but at your own peril, for it has the final say in who lives and who dies here."

"Those that live by the sword will die by the sword," she retorted in voice just as sharp as my own. "And you're wrong. The lives of others are not for us to judge, whether it's by swords or laws we survive. Everyone has a right to life, even the hardest of criminals."

"No, they don't," I snarled, bringing my hand high to stab downward at my victim. "People that take what life and God have given to others don't deserve their lives. It's time someone shows these lowlifes what happens when you take what doesn't belong to you."

"And how does that make you any different from them?!" she screamed at me, taking a few strides forward, only to be stopped by the sight of my blade coming down. "Wait!"

My weapon halted, though I growled out, "Not for long."

"His life doesn't belong to you," she said in biting, angry tones. "You don't have any right to take it."

"I gained that right when he tried to harm Sachi and kill me," I spat back.

"But you don't have to exercise that right!" she pleaded. "You can be the better person!"

"I am _tired_ ," I snarled, rage and disgust warping my voice even further, "of being the 'better person'! If I had been able to kill Kibaou and his idiot followers, Asuna would still be alive! But I decided to listen to _you_ and be the 'better person'! No more!" My sword flashed down, but I was tackled to the side by somebody before I could complete the killing blow.

 _Who?!_

"Enough, Mataras!" I was surprised to see Keita and Tetsuo holding me down, the former being the speaker. "You need to calm down!"

"Get off me!" I roared, trying in vain to throw the two of them off. "I'm not done with him!" Even though my strength was far superior to either of theirs' on an individual basis, together they were enough to keep me pinned to the ground.

"Yes, you are done," Keita grunted, looking at me in the eyes with all the determination he could muster. "You hear me, Mataras? You're. Done. Leave the man alone so we can take him to the Black Iron Palace."

"He tried to hurt Sachi, and you're gonna let him get away with that?!" I snarled, still trying to throw him off.

"Yes, he tried to hurt Sachi!" my guild leader acknowledged. "He and his friends hurt you, I get it! But he'll do even more harm if I let you kill him!"

"He can't do any harm to anybody when he's six feet under," I hissed back.

"He'll have hurt you in the worst possible way," Tetsuo countered. "You kill him in cold blood, or a blind fury like the one you're in now, he'll take part of your soul with him."

"How could you go back to your life in the real world, knowing you murdered somebody?" Keita demanded as I fell still, trying to get them to let go of me through the sheer force of my gaze if nothing else.

"I would return knowing that I made this world- and the real one- a safer place when I got rid of that pathetic excuse for a human being." I spat at the still-paralyzed thief, who flinched as I directed my anger at him once again.

"Mataras, you need to calm down," Keita said as he shook my shoulder roughly. "You're not thinking straight. You're high on adrenaline, making fight-or-flight rationalizations. If you don't want to wind up joining this guy in a cell, you need to _calm down_." Giving him one last glare, I made a show of relaxing in the grass that I was pinned to.

"You're all a bunch of idealistic morons," I scowled. The three of them ignored me.

* * *

"What's happening with him?" Saphira asked as she and the rest of the guild minus Mataras and Sachi sat around their dinner table. The red-cloaked swordsman had been brought back by the three people sent to rescue him, all of them wearing stony faces. As soon as they made it to the tavern, he marched straight up to his room and locked himself in, refusing to say a word to anybody. It had been up to Saphira and the two boys to explain what had went down with the thieves, which elicited different reactions from the various members. Now the rest of the guild- with the exception of Sachi, who had also retreated to her room for privacy- were discussing what should be done about the problems his temper and new mindset were presenting.

"He's always had a tendency to be overprotective of Rivka and I, but ever since we came into this world, each episode just seems to get worse and worse," his sister continued, head in her hands. "I thought that he was getting better since we joined the Cats, but now he's actually…" She couldn't finish the sentence. The reality that her brother had ended the lives of four human beings felt like it was going to crush her.

"I think he just reacted the best that he could," volunteered Sasamaru. "I'm not saying that what he did was right, but by Sachi's account, it did seem like they might have killed him if he gave them the chance. And from what you saw, Saphira, he… took out… those other players while they were armed. It could be counted as self-defense."

"I dunno…" Keita said with a grimace. "From the way he was talking, it sounds to me like he would've killed them, armed or not."

"It can't really be defined as self-defense if the kills were premeditated," Ducker added. His normally cheerful expression was somber, given the present circumstances. "But, I mean… he _was_ defending Sachi. I think his intentions at least started out good."

"Good intentions or not, four people are dead," Kiriha said gravely. "I dunno that we can just give him a free pass on that."

"What are we supposed to do?" Rivka demanded, surprising everyone with her vehemence. "Lock him up in the prison? His cursor is still green. According to the game's laws, he hasn't done anything wrong. What do we charge him with?"

"Are you saying he's innocent in all this?" Keita asked with a frown.

"Of course not! But if the game can't punish this, how are we supposed to do that?" she muttered, crossing her arms. "Besides… We're not his parents. We can't tell him off."

"I don't think Mom and Dad have much to do with this," Saphira said quietly, after an awkward pause fell over the table. "But their deaths, along with Asuna, have served to make him very unstable, more so than I originally thought. I almost want to ask him to stay away from the front lines, if this is how he's going to take each death or near-death from now on."

"Taking him away from the fighting would even worse for him." The others turned toward Kirito as he spoke, since it was the first thing he'd had to say since the meeting had begun. "He's a fighter, that much is obvious about his personality. He sees it as his way of protecting his friends, and if we take that away from him, it'd be almost worse than killing him."

"Or maybe it would be the kind of wake-up call that he needs to see that what he's been doing isn't right," Keita said thoughtfully. "I don't _want_ to take one of- if not our best- fighter off the team, but I can't have someone active in my guild who thinks that murder is the solution to any problem at all!"

"Mataras stays on the team," Kirito said in a tone that brooked no argument. "If you take him off the roster, you're counting me out of expeditions and training, too."

"Kirito…" Kieta started, but then Tetsuo cut him off.

"Keita, the guy has been through a lot," the mace-wielder interjected. "He was fighting five guys all alone, we were nowhere around to help… I mean, is it really any wonder that he would make a mistake like that with all that pressure? I dunno that any of us would have reacted better with odds like that."

Keita went to argue, then closed his mouth as he mulled his teammate's words over. "You make a good point," he acknowledged. "But still. What if something like this happens again? Worse, what if he starts killing just to kill?"

"My brother would never kill just for the sake of it," Saphira stated vehemently. "He always has a reason for what he's doing, even if it is ridiculous."

"You never thought that he would kill in the first place, Saphira," Kiriha pointed out hesitantly. "It seems like his experiences in this place are changing him in all the bad ways."

"Then it's up to us to get him back on the right path," Kirito stated. "He's our friend, guys. He's saved all our lives, more than once, and never asked for anything in return. We owe it to him to see that he doesn't completely lose himself in this game."

Before anyone else could utter an agreement or an argument, Keita stood up and said, "Look, we're just going in circles. We need to put it to a vote what we're going to do with Mataras. Do we take him off of active duty or let him continue with us in the field? All in favor of benching him, raise your hand."

* * *

A light tapping at my door alerted me to the presence of a visitor I had not yet received. "Come in," I said shortly.

Slowly, timidly, Sachi opened the door to my room and took a couple of steps inside. "Um…" she mumbled.

"Forgive me in advance for my rudeness, but what do you want? I've had one hell of a day that I'm trying to sort out," I said shortly.

She flinched at my harsh tones, but did not retreat like I thought she might. "I… heard the others talking," she said haltingly. "About you."

"Should I care?" I scowled, in no mood to talk about the others, especially if all they wanted to do was gossip about how I had handled myself against the cutpurses.

"Maybe." Her voice was so soft, I had to strain to hear it. "They might be taking you off of active duty."

That gave me pause for a moment, then I shrugged indifferently. "They can try to bench me," I muttered. "But none of them can actually force me to do anything. I'm still green, so it's not like they can put me in the dungeon."

"Maybe not, but what's the point in being so strong if you don't have anyone worth fighting alongside?" Sachi inquired.

"To protect the people that can't protect themselves," I replied swiftly. Then, in an even softer voice, I added, "Even if they don't appreciate it."

"What?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Nothing," I sighed heavily. "Is there anything you actually want to talk about, or was it just to tell me that the people I considered my friends are possibly about to ground me?"

"They're still your friends," she replied gently. "They all care about you, especially Rivka and Saphira. …And I wanted to say thank you."

"Huh?" I sputtered. Gratitude was the last thing I expected from anybody right now. "What are you-?"

"You saved my life, in more ways than one," the dark-haired girl said solemnly. "You stopped them from hurting me, risking your own life in the process. And you didn't let me fight them, which for me would have been horrible in it of itself. I've… never had to fight anybody before, and I don't ever want to. So… thank you for saving me, Mataras."

"You… You're welcome," I finally said. "I guess I'm glad that if nothing else, I was able to protect my partner today. Just…" I hesitated, trying to choose my words carefully. When she gave me another quizzical look, I added, "Just remember that there are certain things worth fighting another person for, if it ever comes to it. Sometimes we have to fight, even when all we want to do is run home, else we lose the things that matter."

She nodded with a shudder. "I'll remember that," she promised gravely. Then she turned to leave, saying, "Goodnight, Mataras. I hope you'll still be my partner in the field tomorrow."

At that, I allowed myself a grim smile. "I'll always be your partner in the field, Sachi," I promised her as she left the room.

* * *

The next morning, I went down to breakfast with a stoic face to find the entire guild waiting for me, all of them wearing guarded expressions. Keita strode forward when I stepped onto the ground floor, his face betraying nothing. "We all talked last night about what to do with the problem you presented us," he began. "But we kept on going in circles, even tying when we tried to vote on what we should do. Then Sachi came down and talked to us, helped us to make up our minds."

My eyes flicked over to my partner, but other than that, I did not react.

When Keita seemed to sense that I would not speak until he told me what I wanted to know, he said, "We all came to the conclusion that it would be best if you stay out in the field, but with more than just one person to keep an eye on you. It wasn't fair, you having to fight those guys on your own, so we want to avoid that situation happening again by mixing the groups into threes and a set of four, with you being a part of that last group. Is that unreasonable?"

"No," I replied, grinding the word out like it was a piece of tough meat. "I'll accept that."

"Good, because we've already picked out the groups," Keita said with a nod. "In one group, Kirito, Kiriha, and Ducker. The second will be made up of myself, Sasamaru, and Tetsuo. Lastly, it'll be Saphira, Sachi, Rivka, and you."

"Gonna trust me outside of your own group?" I asked him with a challenging smile, the first sign of emotion I'd displayed since I had arrived.

"I trust your sister and Rivka to keep an eye on you," he replied evenly, not rising to my bait. "And I'm hoping that your drive to help protect Sachi will also help to temper your… violent tendencies. I _was_ going to put you in my group, but the girls interceded on your behalf. Said that it would be better if you were surrounded by people who love you, not someone waiting for you to make a mistake. I agreed with them, which is why I'm setting things up this way."

"Have it your way," I replied with a shrug.

Keita gave me a warning glance, then stepped away from me. Turning to encompass us all in his address, he said, "If that's out of the way, let's get back to work. We're getting close to a goal that Kirito and I are looking forward to sharing with all of you here in the next few weeks, so let's get out there and make time fly, what do you say?"

Everyone nodded or voiced their assent before breaking into the new groups and heading out into the world of Aincrad. As I followed them, surrounded by my new group, I knew then in my heart that the damage had already been done. Even if I were to return to the real world, I would forever be marked by the blood on my hands.

The scarlet paint would draw the fear of many, and the admiration of others, I knew. Even if I were to explain to anyone who would listen why I had done what I did, all they would care about was the crimson tears that dripped from my history. Now, more than ever, I was no longer Michael the high school student.

I was… something else, though more or less, I could not yet decide. Only time would reveal to me what my worth was, and I must admit, the prospect excited me in a dark, primal way.

* * *

The time drew near.

Though I knew it not, I had but one step to take before I would become what I was meant to be, and it approached at a speed that even I would have feared.

Just one little step to go before I would immerse myself in a sea of blood that sprang forth from my own blade.

The birth of the Red Swordsman was at hand.

* * *

 **Mataras: I think we all know what's coming up next chapter.**

 **Victoria: Ya don't say?**

 **Kirito: Even for you, that was some dark writing, man.**

 **Mataras: Gotta make an impact, guys. Besides, this helps show my transition from who I was into I will be, as opposed to me just being like this in the first place. We've had quite a while to be used to my mentality where I'm just a school kid trying to look out for his family, now we're getting the full-on transition into the Red Swordsman.**

 **Kirito: Got it... Any idea when the next chapter will be out?**

 **Mataras: Nope! I'm just glad that I was able to put this chapter up in time for Christmas- I worked really hard on it.**

 **Victoria: In any case, it was good to see all of you again, and we'll be looking forward to seeing you again on the next chapter, titled- Children No More.**


	10. Crimson Tears, Scarlet Hands, Red Blade

**A/N: Hello, everyone. We've reached a chapter that I have long been looking forward to, and I sincerely hope that the effort I put into it will reach you all. I've managed to include a couple of surprises that I think will manage to throw at least a few of you off-kilter, but we'll see.**

 **Now read, review, and please enjoy!**

 **OP Song: Monster (by Skillet)**

* * *

 _Broken  
_ _Life  
_ _Only  
_ _Orders  
Death  
_

* * *

Crimson Tears, Scarlet Hands, a Red Blade

"You… I trusted you!" Keita rounded on me, grabbing me by the collar of my cloak, his eyes filled with furious tears as he bared his teeth in a soundless snarl. "I trusted you to protect them! That was the _one thing_ you should have been able to do!"

His words fell as oil-soaked wood falls upon a bonfire- only serving to add to the flames, growing it into an unquenchable inferno that would consume any that dared wander too close to its heat.

I could hear Kirito shouting something at Keita alongside the others, but it didn't matter anymore.

Nothing mattered but the flames that seared what little was left of my soul, the burning rage that begged a release upon the world that had trapped me, and taken away everything that had ever really mattered. For one instant, I closed my eyes, and allowed my memories to harden my resolve into an armor that would never break, no matter who or what might attempt to take me away from my chosen path. And if my resolve was my armor, then it only made sense that my fury would be my sword, serving to cut down whatever might stand against me.

"You never cared, did you?!" Keita's rant drew my eyes back into focus, specifically to the fist he had drawn back to strike at me.

Through narrow eyes, I saw my own palm intercept the blow and hold his gloved hand in place before my other hand began to strangle him, lifting him off the ground by the force of my will. His eyes bugged with outrage and terror, but I paid him little heed when I spoke.

" _Remember_ ," I said in the soft, deadly tone of a viper. However, my words were not addressed to him.

They were addressed to the three survivors standing behind me, whose voices were caught in their throats as they realized what was about to occur, helpless in the face of my mounting, implacable fury.

"Michael, don't-!"

"My name…" I hissed to interrupt, " _I am_ … _Mataras_."

* * *

Three months and some days had passed since the attempt on mine and Sachi's lives, but to me it may as well have been a time where all that occurred was a dream. Days melded together like one stream flowing into another without distinction, individual sunrises and sunsets no longer seeming to mark the passage of time as they should. What happened one day may as well have happened in the month before it, for time had lost its meaning.

The reason for this lay solely within my newfound mentality and the distance it created between the majority of my comrades and I. Little was spoken by me, for I found that I no longer had much in common with people that had never taken the life of another.

They all still possessed their innocence, their purity of heart, while I would wake up with frost in my bones as blood dripped from the fingers of my soul. Try though the girls did, they were unable to completely reconcile me to the others, and even Kirito seemed uncertain as how to act around me.

No one hurled insults at me, nor did they even gaze at me with cold eyes, but their attempts to steer clear of me whenever they could were hardly subtle, and it accomplished much the same thing as if they had treated me with outright harshness. I had become a pariah among outcasts, and often I wondered if I wouldn't be better striking out on my own.

The only thing keeping me with the rest of them was Saphira, Rivka, and to a lesser extent, Sachi. I kept up my training with the timid girl, even if our conversations consisted of far fewer words than before, and her skill with a dagger grew rapidly as she strove to master the arts of self-defense. Rivka kept trying to get me to come out of my room during what little leisure time I allowed myself in those days, but most of the time she would wind up sitting with me and having a soft-spoken conversation when she realized I would not leave unless I decided to on my own. Saphira did much the same, but it was only to her that I truly opened up about what I felt about my situation and how I felt that things might be made better if I left.

She never once agreed with me that leaving was the correct path, but she also never blamed me for the deaths I had inflicted, either. She disapproved of how I had treated my final victim, and she made that clear to me. But for the criminals that had tried to fight me to their last breath, she held no grudge, and for that I was grateful beyond words. Even though she had been the first to witness my newly-awakened bloodthirst, she still treated me as though I was a human being.

In brief, sporadic moments, I would feel a twinge of guilt, having forced her to look after me when I should be the one protecting her after the death of our parents. Most of the time, though, I was too busy slaughtering mobs in droves to pay attention to how I was feeling or how it might be affecting others.

I suppose if I had any regrets leading up to that fateful June day, it would be that I did not spend more time caring for my only remaining family member.

* * *

I remember the night before all too clearly. Keita and Kirito had called us all to a meeting in the guild leader's room, and the other members of the guild were chattering excitedly to each other, as apparently Keita mentioned that they had a surprise in store for them. I was going to stay in my room, as I often did in those days during strategy meetings, since my opinion no longer seemed welcome at the head of the table, but I was mildly surprised when Ducker shoved his head into my room, and with a large grin that had not been directed at me for some time, said, "You comin? Kirito and Keita said they aren't starting without you."

I raised an eyebrow and sat up on my bed, asking in a dry tone, "Am I finally being fired?"

"Doubt it, they said that they had something to give to all of us," the thief said with a roll of his eyes. "Come on, Grumpy Gus."

I equipped my boots and headed toward the door, muttering under my breath, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Fortunately, Ducker had left as soon as I got off the bed, so he didn't catch my growling tones.

I walked up to the doorframe and leaned against it, deciding that it would make for an easy retreat if the atmosphere turned hostile. Keita held my gaze for a brief moment before nodding an acknowledgement of my presence. Then he turned to everyone else, who were crammed together on the beds or standing against the walls, and allowed a big smile to break out on his face. "Well guys, you've been working pretty hard these past few months, and now I can finally tell you that it's paid off!"

"Ooh! Are we getting Christmas bonuses?!" Sasamaru grinned.

"If that's the case, our boss is seriously overdue!" Ducker laughed. "We charge interest!"

"I want a gym membership with my bonus!" Tetsuo added.

Keita rolled his eyes to heaven, but couldn't keep the smile off of his face. "You know, one of these days, we're going to get through a meeting without getting sidetracked," he chuckled. "Before we get out of this game, it will happen, I swear it!"

"Dude, have you met us?" Ducker snorted. "We're more likely to get killed by a slime than take a meeting seriously!" Most of the original members laughed with him, but those of us that had been front-liners, along with Sachi, shifted in place uncomfortably.

"Seriously though, we do have something to discuss with all of you," Kirito said pointedly, giving Keita a somber look.

The leader of the group got the hint, sobered his expression, and said, "Kirito's right. We have a pretty incredible opportunity in front of us, and we wanted to get your guys' opinion on it, since it has to do with all the col we've been saving up."

"Wait, how much do we have now?" Kiriha piped up.

"In the guild's collective savings, we've got three-hundred-fifty-thousand col saved up," Keita announced proudly. "Which is enough for us to do a few things with it, and we wanted to get your guys' take on it before we spent it."

"Vacation!" Tetsuo yelled.

"New gear!" Saphira argued.

"Better food!" Ducker said, rubbing his lean stomach.

"Bigger apartments!" Kiriha added.

"Okay, guys," Kirito said as he waved his hands to indicate that he wanted them all to calm down. "Let Keita finish before you start arguing."

"Never!" Ducker protested, but Saphira clamped his mouth shut with her hand before he could say more.

"Thanks, Saphira," Kieta acknowledged with a grin, then said, "We've thought long and hard about this, and we've come up with three things we can do. One, we can outfit two of us with all the latest gear, which would allow them to go up to the front lines with Kirito and the others in order to take on more lucrative quests, which will turn into better gear for the rest of us after a while, and faster leveling for that pair. Second, we can afford to upgrade all of our weapons, and we can start hunting on some of the higher floors, though not the front lines just yet."

The others were all looking at each other, considering in their own turns which investment might help them all become stronger, faster. As for me, I hardly cared. My equipment was more than sufficient, and I felt that it was high time we returned to the front lines and began to attack the frontier with a vengeance. _We've lost too much time to this game already,_ I thought sourly. _The sooner we leave, the better._ The thought that I would no longer have to be around the other Cats and their cold shoulders also had its appeal.

"What's the third option?" Rivka asked curiously.

"Option three is that we buy a house of our own," Keita replied, his smile widening. "We wouldn't have to keep paying rent, and we could save up money faster so that we could still outfit ourselves for the front lines before too long." The idea seemed to be quite popular with the others in the guild, and even I found myself liking the idea of having a more permanent residence, one that didn't keep cutting into my wallet once a month.

"Where can we afford to buy a house?" I found myself asking.

The others looked at me with some measure of surprise, but Kirito answered quickly enough, saying, "Floor one seems like the most likely place."

"Doesn't the ALF control most of that floor?" Saphira asked with a slight frown. "I dunno how well they'd take to another guild moving in on their turf."

"We're hardly the size of a hunting party," Keita replied. "I doubt that they would even notice that we're there."

"They'd notice," Rivka told him quietly. "Some of their members don't like us very much."

"…Why?" Keita asked slowly, and it was not lost that his eyes flicked toward me when he spoke.

Before I could say anything, Kirito interceded. "One of their officers was responsible for Asuna's death," he said quietly, but firmly. "We were the ones that put him in jail, so there's probably more than a few of his goons that wouldn't like to see us there."

"Oh," Keita said, scratching his head with a slight grimace. "Well, it'd be a little pricier, but I think that there are some unclaimed houses in Zumfut. I could look there."

"Zumfut was beautiful," Kiriha nodded, speaking of the elven city back on the third floor of Aincrad. "I remember feeling really at home when we got there."

"I liked it," Sachi agreed.

"Hold on, are we not even gonna consider getting upgrades?" Keita asked. "I mean, I'm all for getting our own place, don't get me wrong, but shouldn't we at least consider getting some new gear?"

"I say we're doing more than fine as is," Tetsuo replied with a shrug. "And like you said, if we're not having to pay rent every month, we can build our savings up again even faster than we already have this time."

"I like the idea of having a house," Kirito said to his leader. "If we're really desperate for new gear, I have a few favors I can call in that'll land us some nice loot."

Keita seemed to mull it over for a little bit before he grinned again and said, "All right, then! Tomorrow I'll heat to Zumfut and see if we can't get a new home!" The rest of the guild let out a cheer at that, which followed me down the hall as I walked back to the welcoming isolation of my own room.

* * *

"Teleport, Zumfut!" Keita vanished in a glow of blue light, the guild waving him off as he went in search of a place that we could call home while trapped in Aincrad. It was the morning after the meeting, and the weather was set to a prime summer day, lending to the group's general good mood. Even I was feeling slightly less grim than usual.

"Hey, I got an idea!" Ducker exclaimed as the teleport gate powered down.

"Whoa now, don't hurt yourself," Tetsuo snickered.

"No, seriously, we should all go hunting while Keita's buying a house," the thief insisted. "That way we can make some extra cash and put it toward new furniture for our home!"

"I like the sound of that," Kiriha nodded with a smile. "Maybe if we get enough we can buy food for a move-in party."

"Okay, gang," Kirito agreed. "Shall we head up to floor twenty-four?" The floor he had mentioned was our usual hunting area since it provided a balance between 'safe' mobs for farming and getting a steady amount of EXP.

"Nah, let's go up to floor twenty-seven," Sasamaru said. "We're plenty strong enough to go up near the front lines now!"

Kirito and I found ourselves exchanging a look of concern, despite ourselves. That floor had only recently been cleared by the assault team, and a lot of the dungeons in it were still largely unexplored. The monsters up there would be a step above what the other Cats were used to dealing with, though they probably wouldn't be much of a problem for our group. Still…

"We should stick to our usual spots," Kirito began hesitantly, only to be overridden by Ducker.

"Come on, man, don't be an old lady," he smirked. "Up on higher floors, we can get more col and EXP, and faster, too."

"Yeah," agreed Tetsuo. "Besides, we've been working really hard on our leveling. We can handle any stupid mob that comes after us!"

"Pride goeth before a fall," I muttered under my breath, though Sachi seemed to hear me, because she turned and looked a question at me. Meeting her gaze evenly, I said quietly, "Stay close to me no matter what, got it?"

"Of course," she nodded quietly.

Meanwhile, Kirito seemed to have given up on the argument with the others. "All right, we can go up to the higher floors, but stick together and follow my lead when we do."

"Yes, Mom," Ducker laughed as he dashed up to the teleport gate, his comrades close behind him.

"We're going to have to save them at some point today, aren't we?" Rivka said with a heavy sigh.

"Hopefully this time the lesson sinks in," I grumbled as I moved to follow Kirito to the gate. "But I get the feeling that this is going to be a repeat occurrence from now on."

* * *

Despite our concerns, the morning and most of the afternoon passed without incident. We had to use more of our healing items than normal, but we made good progress through the dungeon we had selected, all things considered.

The labyrinth itself was made of a strange, metallic substance with glowing blue lines that occasionally shifted and rearranged itself around us. The corridors were all abnormally straight and square, so I imagined that the game's lore would tell us that dwarves had carved this place out of the mountainside. The loot we were gaining was good, and so were the col drops, which, in addition to the higher rate of gained EXP, slowly began to lead to us unconsciously lowering our guard.

I will never forgive myself for making that mistake so long as I live.

It was Ducker who found the hidden entrance, much to Rivka's surprise, as she had been looking for treasures invisible to the naked eye alongside the knife-wielding thief. Pressing his palm against a seemingly ordinary piece of the shifting wall, the blond kid whooped with delight at his discovery and immediately dashed inside, followed by his friends.

Alarm bells began to go off in my head the instant that I saw Kirito pause in the entryway, so I made a mad dash for him, Saphira and Sachi hot on my heels. Those mental alarms were swiftly accompanied by a stone of fear that settled into my belly when Kirito ran into the room and shouted, "Wait, don't! It's probably a trap!"

Too late, we heard alarms go off in the hidden room, even as the walls began to throb red.

Letting out a roar, I put on a burst of speed and managed to make it into the area, though the door swung shut behind me- and my two partners. "You should have stayed outside!" I snapped as I drew my sword, letting the flames of my Dragon Blood come to life.

"Like I'm going to let you charge into a trap without me!" Saphira shot back, a grim smile on her face even as the walls around us slid open to reveal a small horde of rock golems twice as tall as me, and evil-looking dwarves that barely came up to my knees, armed with pickaxes and shields. Beside my sister, Sachi looked absolutely petrified at their appearance.

"Teleport crystals, now!" Kirito ordered.

Ducker was the first to react, holding a blue crystal trimmed with a silver casing above his head as he shouted, "Teleport, Taft!" Nothing happened, which caused him to go white as a ghost. "Teleport, _Taft!_ " he shouted, his voice sounding perilously close to breaking.

"The crystals aren't working!" Tetsuo reported as he hefted his spear in preparation to fight.

"Great!" I seethed, furious with Ducker for falling for such an obvious trap. "Slaughter-gnomes and murder golems inbound, we're low on healing supplies, and half of us are half-wits!"

"The walls are blocking the crystals!" Kirito snarled, clearly frustrated by the situation. Frustrated and fearful, if his face was anything to go by. He placed himself with his back to his sister and shouted, "Pair up, and whatever you do, don't get separated!"

"I've got your back, Kazuto!" Kiriha shouted, forgetting his game handle in her panic. I looked back and was glad to see that Sachi and Saphira had turned around to form a triangle with our backs.

Then the mobs began their attack.

* * *

Less than a minute in, I could already see that the rest of the group was disintegrating- Ducker had started out ahead of everyone, and he was quickly swarmed by the dwarf monsters. He was killed before he even hit the floor, but he managed to get out one last scream that would only be added to the collection that haunted my nightmares.

 _Not again…_

Sweat would have covered my brow then, if my body had possessed the ability to produce fluids.

Sasamaru let out a shout of rage and anguish, and dashed at the swarm, determined to avenge his friend. Before Kirito could order him back into formation, he had been taken out by a trio of the rock golems. I think he was surprised more than anything, because he didn't scream before he turned into a cloud of green-blue shards.

 _Not this again…!_

Frost seemed to coat my bones, chilling me down to my very soul.

Tetsuo held them off for a few good swings, but in the end, there were too many of the mobs in such a confined space for him to defeat them, cut off as he was from the rest of us. He too, died screaming, but unlike his comrades I hardly noticed his passing, too busy with fighting off my own monsters to pay any attention to- _Wait…_

I was in the middle of dispatching a golem myself when I realized that Rivka had been up near the front of the group, with Ducker and the others. Even more disturbing, I hadn't heard a peep from her since the fight began.

"Saphira, Sachi!" I shouted to be heard above the noise of the battle.

"What?!" my sister demanded, countering a pickaxe with her sword, then beheading her attacker.

"Rivka!" I replied. "I need to get to her!"

"Go!" she shouted, immediately understanding. "I'll watch over Sachi! Just be careful!"

I needed no further encouragement. Leaping into the seething mass of mobs, I cut and slashed and hacked and stabbed with abandon, pausing for nothing, an implacable killing machine that would stop at nothing to make sure that my nightmares did not come to life.

"I've come too far!" I bellowed, cutting a golem clean in half. "I've lost too much for it to end like this! No one else dies today!" I glimpsed a flash of green cloth as I leaped over a trio of dwarves, and as soon as I landed, I bolted toward the spot I had seen it.

I found Rivka, barely alive, covered in dozens of red marks and backed into a corner. Letting out a savage roar, I bulldozed into a golem that was about to take a swing at her. The force of the impact threw its aim off just enough for Rivka to dodge and concentrate on the two dwarves trying to hack her to death.

Continuing my wordless declaration of war, I hacked the golem into pieces in the time it takes to blink before turning my attention to one of its brothers, which sought to remove my head with a swift blow to my skull. Determined not to give it the chance, I relieved it of its hand, then kicked it hard enough to send it crashing onto some dwarves, pinning them beneath its heavy body.

Finally, I was able to clear a path to Rivka and help her dispatch her enemies. "What took you so long?!" she demanded.

"I took the scenic route!" I snapped. "Quit being cute and drink a health potion while I hold these things back!"

"You're in the yellow!" she protested. "You need one, too!"

"I'll take it once I know you're safe!" I snarled. "Now heal up and give me a hand with these walking rock gardens!"

Apparently realizing that it would be pointless to argue, she swiftly downed a red potion and tossed aside the container, letting it shatter on the wall. "I'll be ready in a minute!" she informed me.

"Great, that'll give me enough time to clear out this lot!" I quipped, though the relief I felt at her being able to take a respite was too profound for words.

"Now who's being cute?!" she asked.

"Hah! I'm adorable!" I retorted, hurling a knife into the head of a dwarf, killing it instantly.

* * *

We fought for what seemed like hours, but was probably only thirty minutes at the most. We accumulated countless wounds, yet somehow we each managed to buy enough time for our partners to consume enough healing potions to keep us alive. Fortunately, those still worked, even though the crystals did not- otherwise, we would have all been killed in less than two minutes.

Despite all our skill and elevated abilities, even Kirito and I were hard-pressed to defend ourselves, much less our comrades. Yet somehow, we managed to pull through- right up until the very end, when I lost everything.

The cluster of mobs seemed to be thinning out, and so, sensing that the end of our ordeal was over, Kirito shouted, "C'mon, guys! One last push, and we'll have beaten these rocky bastards!" Hearing his words gave us all a new burst of energy that until then, we were not aware that we possessed.

We redoubled our efforts, lashing out with desperate force to see our enemies crumble before us. However, our haste made us slightly more careless. In our rush to get out of the trap we had found ourselves in, one of us forgot to watch their back.

I had just finished demolishing the last of the golems in front of me when I saw it. Sachi, her heath in the red zone, and eager to be rid of her assailants, stepped too far away from Saphira, and gave one of the golems attacking them a chance to interpose itself between them.

"Sach-!" I started to scream, then the noise died in my throat, only to be replaced with an even more desperate cry of, " _Victoria, NO!_ "

It happened too quickly for me to intervene. My sister had a fierce grin on her face as she dodged around the golem and shoved Sachi out of the way- allowing the blow meant for her friend to fall upon her own back. The large red gash that the strike left sprayed a few red polygons into the air, like crystalized droplets of blood, even as her health bar plummeted to zero, and then disappeared.

 _This can't… She can't…_

Her eyes met mine, and all the world turned gray around us. Somehow, despite the yards that separated us, I could hear her say, "I love you, Brother… I'll tell Mom and Dad you said hi."

Then her avatar- and my soul with it- disintegrated into millions of shattered fragments.

She was gone.

My little sister, the one person I was bound by blood to protect, had died because I wasn't there to shield her, and now I had nothing.

There was naught but an empty hole left where my heart used to be, but the void did not remain for long.

Within an instant, it was replaced with a rage transcending anything I had ever experienced, tearing my identity asunder and re-forging it into something new. Something insatiable. Something deadly.

This world had hurt me, taunted me through its residents, taken away my final days that I could have spent with my parents, and now claimed the life of the only person left in the world that shared blood with me. I had nothing left to anchor me to who I had been.

In that moment, Michael, the brother of Victoria, was no more. Aincrad had claimed two souls with a single life, and nothing would be the same after it.

* * *

We made it back to Taft- I don't remember how. All I remember was killing the last of the mobs with a wild precision, followed by the sounds of the girls sobbing, mixed with the condolences they were offering me. I think even Kirito tried to console me, but their words fell on deaf ears. My sister was dead, and so was my old life. Anything they had to say was meant for who I had been, not who I had become; so I ignored them, keeping my eyes on the ground and saying nothing.

Of our gathered party, little more than half of us had survived: Kirito, myself, Kiriha, Sachi, and Rivka. I have a vague impression that I was the one who killed the remaining mobs surrounding Sachi, but it mattered little to me. Nothing really mattered outside of my mounting wrath, soon to be unleashed on all of Aincrad.

Eventually, we met up with Keita, who demanded to know why three of his comrades had vanished from his friend's list. Kirito told him, whereupon he rounded on me, angrily demanding to know why I had failed to see his friends safely home.

It was his last mistake.

As I stood there, on the edge of our world, my guild's leader trying to break free of an iron grip that I would not release, I found myself staring into the eyes of a dead man. "Your friends died because they never took anything seriously," I growled in a voice pitched so that only he could hear. "Let's see if this doesn't convince others that this world is not to be taken lightly- because it isn't the monsters in the dungeons you need to fear…" Yanking him off his feet, I held my arm fully outstretched so that his feet dangled out over empty space. "It's the monsters in our heads."

"Michael, let him go!" Rivka shouted, starting toward me as she spoke. However, she stopped dead not two paces away from me when I glared at her over my shoulder.

"Poor choice of words," I hissed.

"You wouldn't," Keita grunted.

" _Wouldn't I_?" I challenged him, sounding more like a snarling beast than a human.

* * *

I stared at my empty, outstretched hand as though I had accidentally stuck it into the remains of something whose origins I really didn't want to know. As Keita's body got further and further away, I muttered under my breath, "Huh. That was-"

A resounding crack of thunder and purple sparks rang out from the left side of my head, where a silver blade had tried to cut through it. Letting out a heavy sigh, I said, "Try not to hurt yourself." Turning around, I could see that the sword belonged to Kiriha, whose face was twisted with grief and fury.

"You! _Killed_! Keita!" she shouted. Behind her, Rivka had sunk to her knees and had a dull, empty look in her eyes, coupled with a slack jaw that gave off an impression of vacancy. Sachi was hiding slightly behind Kirito, trembling violently as tears rolled down her face. The boy looked like he was in shock, his jaw working up and down, but without managing to actually say anything.

"Certainly seems that I have, haven't I?" I replied to Kiriha, boredom having replaced the hatred in my voice. "Oh well, that's too bad." Slapping the ineffectual blade away from my head, I walked past my former comrades with the words, "Don't follow me. We won't be seeing each other again, if I have my way."

"Mataras, did you just kill Keita because he said you didn't care?!" Kirito was the one shouting this time.

I stopped walking, just long enough to say over my shoulder, "Because he had no right to invoke my sister's name. From now on, no one does in my presence." Done speaking to them, I resumed the beginning of what I knew was going to be a long journey.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Kiriha demanded, though from the sounds of things, she knew it would be pointless to try and come after me. "You won't get away with this! We'll see to it that the assault team finds you and puts you in a cell with Kibaou for what you've done!"

"Oh, but I will get away with it," I said softly as I opened my menu, and without pausing in my steps, began to delete my friend's list, one by one. "And I'm going to keep getting away with it, for as long as this game continues… It's time for the criminals of this world to learn that there are consequences beyond the scope of the game's rules. And with no one to hold me back… the Death Game can really get started."

* * *

The four remaining Black Cats could only watch him go, numb with horror and sick from the dread that the day had inflicted on them. Half of them were now just names crossed off on the Wall of History, the newest victims in the death trap that was Aincrad.

Each of them were handling it differently, Kirito could see. Rivka seemed to be almost catatonic, completely unresponsive to the world around her. Sachi was sobbing at the loss of the friends that she had fought alongside since day one of the game, gripping his arm like it was a lifeline that was the only thing keeping her from plunging down a dark, bottomless mine shaft. Kiriha was trembling from shock and anger, but Kirito could hear her sniffling, trying to suppress her own tears.

 _This is all my fault_ , he thought. _I should have never let us go up to the higher floors… I should have realized it was a trap sooner… Now look at us. Half of us dead, one driven completely insane… The rest of us are not much better off._

He considered chasing down Mataras, but almost immediately discounted the idea. He was too high-level, too skilled to track down and engage in a duel, which could very well happen with how far gone he seemed now. His Dragon Blood would ensure that he had an advantage in any fight, be it against a mob or a player, and Kirito did not think that he could defeat his red-cloaked friend. He was not even sure that he would _want_ to if it came down to it.

 _He wasn't evil_ , he thought tiredly. _But this game, the things he's had to endure, the people that were stolen away from him… They've twisted him, brought out parts of his nature that would otherwise be left unknown… And now he's probably gone forever._ He cursed Akihiko Kayaba with the vilest oaths he knew for his crimes against Mataras' family.

Kirito was exhausted. His mind was so worn out that even though they didn't feel muscle fatigue and dehydration in this world, it felt as though he had just run up and down Mount Everest in one go. _Is Aincrad really unbeatable?_ He despaired as he sat down and slumped against the railing that bordered the edge of their world, unintentionally bringing Sachi down with him, though she uttered not one word of protest.

"Why?" Kiriha finally demanded as she turned toward her brother. "Why, Kazuto?!"

"He believes that he doesn't have anything left to live for," the black-and-blue garbed boy replied dully. "Even though we're his friends… Friendships are nothing in the face of losses like the ones that he's had to suffer."

"Then why didn't he just throw himself over the edge and be done with it all?!" the younger sword maiden shouted. "Why kill Keita, why take it out on him?!"

"He doesn't have anything to _live_ for, in his mind," Kirito replied wearily. "But… Maybe he has something to kill for."

* * *

 _One Month Later…_

Kibaou let out a long sigh as he breathed in the fresh air, filled with new appreciation for the open skies and the stars that twinkled above him. Even though he knew they were just little lights that shone down from the bottom of floor two, they reminded him enough of a real night sky that he couldn't help but grin at them.

He had been released from the prison not an hour ago, someone apparently having paid his bail. He didn't get a chance to meet whoever had been responsible, but he wasn't about to insist on staying in the Black Iron Palace for another minute when the door was wide open, and he was home free. He thought that it might have been some of his old comrades in the ALF, but in the end, he decided that it didn't matter. Based on what he'd heard from the people that had come to visit, and some of the other prisoners that had only been in for short stints, it would seem that his reputation was ruined. He was held responsible for the deaths of the ALF members during the twenty-fifth boss raid, and perhaps more upsetting to the masses, the demise of the daring 'Lightning Flash', Asuna.

He was free, but no one would want to be seen around him, and in spite of his happiness at getting an early release from prison, that fact did keep his spirits lowered just a bit. _Maybe I can just solo it on some of the mid-levels,_ he thought resignedly. Then a grin split his face again as he thought, _And maybe if I'm lucky, I can make enough col to put a hit out on that foreigner brat and his kid sister…_

He was contemplating on who to hire for such a high-profile target, and how much it would probably cost him when he heard a soft _snick,_ followed by a loss of all feeling in his body as he fell forward, hitting the soft grass with a _thud._

"What…?" he grunted. He wasn't completely sure, but he thought that he could see the hilt of a knife protruding from his shoulder. It was very difficult to tell when all he could move was his eyes.

"Kibaou of the Aincrad Liberation Force, you have failed Aincrad," a rough, growling voice said from behind him. "And this time, don't be expecting any of my mercy. Or rather, I should say my sister's mercy. Me, I'd have cut you up without a second thought long ago. But she always had this sense of morality that, quite frankly, I found annoying whenever I was trying to deal with troublemakers like you."

Chills went through Kibaou's body as he started to recognize the voice. It was pitched lower than the last time he heard it, and laced with more hatred than ever before. However, unlike before, when its owner had always seemed on the verge of completely losing his temper, he now sounded completely composed and in control of himself.

"Why are you here?!" Kibaou demanded, unable to help himself. _Just when things seemed to be going my way!_

"Who do you think posted your bail, idiot?" Mataras asked him contemptuously as he walked into the spiky-haired man's field of vision. Unlike the last time they had met, the boy was now dressed completely in black, save for his bright red cloak- it had been closer to a maroon shade when they had crossed blades- and the blood-red blade that he carried. His hair was longer, too, and it looked as though it may have been dyed completely black, though it was hard to tell in the uncertain evening light.

"Why set me free?" Kibaou snapped. "Finally realize you got the wrong man? That it was your stubbornness that killed your friend?! Is this about a guilty conscience, huh?!"

"Come on now, use whatever rotted brains you were unfortunate enough to be born with," Mataras snorted, sounding like he wanted to laugh. "If this were about me trying to make peace, do you think I would have paralyzed you first?"

A cold stone of dread began to lodge itself in Kibaou's stomach, but he refused to let it take ahold of him. _If I can keep him talking long enough, the poison should wear off_ , he thought quickly. "So, what? You think you're going to kill me?"

"No, all the thinking has already been done," Mataras replied casually, as if discussing plans for a weekend. "You will die here, in the dirt, Kibaou. Tonight, very soon."

"Please," the orange-haired man sneered, his confidence growing as the seconds trickled by. "If you were going to kill me, you'd have done it by now."

"I'll kill you when it suits me, thank you very much," Mataras shot back, his voice growing harder. "You've caused me a lot of problems, Kibaou. I'm taking my time because I want to savor this moment. Cliché, I know, but then, I suppose they do exist for a reason."

"Gonna talk me to death?" Kibaou asked, trying to move his fingers, but still finding himself unable.

"No, I thought a stab through where your heart is supposed to be would be in order," Mataras answered, his dark red blade coming up to rest on his shoulder, though Kibaou knew from experience just how fast this particular swordsman could move, so he grew wary, keeping an eye on the sword as best he could. While he was doing that, Mataras was still talking, saying, "However, I might just lop your head off. I rather like the idea of watching your head roll on the dirt before it explodes."

"Your sister know you're out here?" Kibaou tried, seeing the blade come off of his enemy's shoulder in preparation to swing it at him.

He had barely finished the last word when he felt an impact in his back that bore through his body and exited our his chest. He grunted in surprise as he realized that Mataras had stabbed him all the way through, pinning him to the dirt.

The red-cloaked swordsman released his blade and knelt in front of Kibaou, his eyes gleaming like twin moons in a starless night. They glittered with such hatred that the spiky-haired man knew that there would be no escape for him this time, interference from Saphira or no. "I don't understand," he grunted, panicking as he watched his heath points slowly draining away. "Why are you doing this now? I thought you were-"

"Forget what I said earlier," the boy hissed. "Don't try to think- you'll only hurt yourself. Besides, I'm sure that there's more than one 'great thinker' where you're headed. Maybe they can help you out- in between their screams, of course."

"I'll be sure to save you a spot," Kibaou spat, his health well into the yellow zone now. "I hear there's always room for more in hell."

The smile that Mataras gave him would haunt Kibaou, even in the afterlife. "I'm counting on it," he chuckled. Then he stood up, adding, "You're the first life that I'll be claiming during this little crusade of mine… A good way to start, with a cold dish of revenge, don't you think?" Before Kibaou could answer, Mataras smacked himself on the head and said, "Oh, right. I forgot- you're not supposed to think."

Kibaou's health was in the red, and he was breathing heavily, trying with all his might to move even an inch, but his body refused to obey.

"This is the land of blade and skill," Mataras said gravely, moving outside of Kibaou's field of vision again. "Your tresspasses will not be allowed."

"You heartless bastard!" Kibaou screamed, desperate tears finally flowing down his face. "I'll kill you, I swear I will!"

"Hear me, for I am a swordsman of Aincrad," the boy continued, speaking as though Kibaou had said nothing. "I now lay thee to ruin with the Taiyoken, and expel thy vast defilement." The older man felt the sword move ever so slightly as Mataras re-fastened a firm grip on it. "I burn thee."

"You'll pay for this, I-!"

" _Shatter._ "

He did.

* * *

 _Five Months later…_

Kirito trudged through the snow, his breath coming out in long, white streams of vapor that roiled and dissipated into brief memory, then into nothing at all. He was on his way home, his inventory loaded with grocery supplies and a few items that he had taken care to organize so that no one else would accidentally see while he was unloading.

'Home' was the house that Keita had bought for their guild six months ago, the same day that Mataras had murdered the other boy before up and disappearing. In all that time, none of the remaining Cats had heard a single word from him. They might have assumed that he was dead, but his name was still unmarked on the Wall of History, which meant that their former friend still lived out there, somewhere in Aincrad. However, at this point, with forty-nine floors cleared out, he could have been hiding anywhere, and since he had removed himself from their friend's lists, they had no way of tracking him. However…

About a month after Mataras went missing, Kibaou's name was crossed off on the Wall of History. The AI guards in charge of the prison had reported that someone had bailed the former ALF officer out of prison, three months before he was due to be released by the system. At first Kirito wanted to pass if off as coincidence, but a doubt persisted, nagging at the back of his mind, no matter how hard he tried to repress it.

In addition to Kibaou's murder, there had been a few scattered reports every few weeks coming in from floors all over Aincrad that people were going missing, their names getting crossed out on the Wall shortly after. At first the victims seemed random, but it wasn't long before people began to realize that the people getting killed were either always orange or red players.

Then, more recently, people began to report noticing a player in a bright red cloak in the areas where people were killed, shortly before their demise. Kirito knew several people that wore red as their color scheme, but only one that would go on a killing spree like that.

Still, he had enough on his plate without worrying about what his former comrade might be up to. He and Kiriha had taken to the front lines again, Sachi joining them just a few weeks after they cleared the fortieth floor, her own level finally high enough to keep up with the Kirigaya siblings. She did not particularly enjoy being up on the frontier of Aincrad, but then, neither did anyone with common sense on the assault team. Besides, it was where Kirito was, and she wanted to be close to him.

It seemed that in the absence of Mataras and her other friends, she had latched onto Kirito as a sort of safety blanket to help keep herself from breaking down completely. He did not resent her for it- in fact, he found himself being drawn to the small, shy girl, despite the horrible circumstances that had forced them together. It was not unlike a pair of injured animals licking each other's wounds for comfort.

Kiriha had dealt with the loss of their comrades and Mataras' betrayal by throwing herself completely into leveling and exploring the dungeons as much as possible. She seemed determined to outrace her emotions for as long as she could, and Kazuto knew that he had to let her. Any attempt to bring up the subject could destroy the relationship they been working to rebuild, and he did not want to see it destroyed by his actions. When she needed him, he would be there this time.

As for Rivka… It seemed that the loss of Mataras, Saphira, and the other Cats, coupled with the deaths of Michael's parents, then Asuna, proved too much for her to handle. She spent most of her time in their home in Zumfut, speaking few words, and doing little besides housework. Any attempts to get her to rejoin the fight, or even to go out into the fields had met with utter failure. It was as though without her friends, her family in all but blood, she had lost the will to fight.

Kirito let out another long sigh into the Christmas Eve air, knowing that a lot of the fight had been taken out of him, too. These days it was as though he was fighting simply because it was all he knew how to do in this world, and not because he wanted to do it.

These thoughts were flickering in his mind when he walked through the door to the home he shared with the girls, the home base for those that remained of the Moonlit Black Cats. With Keita gone, the position of leader had fallen to him. Honestly, it felt like a fairly empty title, though Klein insisted that no matter how small their number, there's was still a guild at heart. _That may be, but it's a pretty broken heart,_ he thought as he made his way into the kitchen, the girls already setting the table.

"Hey guys," he said as he walked over to the cabinet and began to unload items into it. Their kitchen was decently sized, with plenty of room for cooking utensils and eating supplies that they didn't want to carry around with them.

"Hey, Kirito," Sachi said with a soft, sad smile. It seemed that no matter what she did these days, sadness tinged her every action and word. "How was it out there?"

"Interesting," he replied noncommittally, though his heart was racing. "Ran into Argo. She had some… news."

"Is it about…?" The unfinished question came from Rivka, who looked to Kirito for any sign of hope, something that might indicate that Mataras would be returning to them.

"No," he said as gently as he could. "But… it's something that I think we should look into for sure." Already he could see that Rivka had lost interest, but his sister and Sachi were listening.

"What's up, Bro?" Kiriha asked.

"There's supposed to be an event tonight," he replied. "It's shaky intel; she didn't even charge me for it. But she did get a name, part of a location- and what one of the drop items is supposed to be."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense!" Kiriha said when he paused to gather his thoughts.

"Okay, chill out, Sis, it's not happening until midnight!" Kirito chided her. "The event is named after the boss that's supposed to appear- Nicholas the Renegade. One of the items he's supposed to drop… It's a revival item." He paused to let those words sink in, see what kind of effect they had on his team.

He got reactions faster than he had expected. Kiriha immediately jumped out of the recliner she'd been occupying and shouted, "Well then, let's go get it! There's more than a couple of people I can think of that we could use it on!"

"We could revive your friend, Asuna," Sachi suggested, surprising Kirito. When he looked at her with a question in his eyes, she added, "Well… I mean, you miss her, don't you?"

"But what about the other Cats?" he asked her, holding up a hand to forestall his sister for the time being. "Don't you wanna see 'em again?"

"Well…" She hesitated, before asking, "How many people can the item revive?"

Kirito hesitated before replying, knowing that the answer would cause unhappiness no matter how he phrased it. Finally, he just went with what was the simplest thing to say, and murmured, "Supposedly it only revives one person." His words seemed to amplify the quiet that had fallen over the house again.

"Then we should revive Asuna, if it really is possible," Sachi said with a sad smile. "The other Cats have each other, at least. She was alone when she died… If anyone deserves to come back, it's-"

"Saphira." The interruption came from Rivka, surprising everyone.

"Sorry, what?" Kiriha asked with a frown.

"If anyone should be revived, it should be Saphira," the brown-haired girl said, her voice subdued. "She died saving Sachi. I would like it if we could bring back Asuna, but…" Her chin trembled for a second before she took a deep breath to steady herself and said, "Saphira should come first."

"Why does Saphira get priority?" Kiriha demanded. "Asuna died because Kibaou was trying to get at you guys through me. I owe her!"

"Then I owe Saphira for saving mine," Sachi said quietly. "Rivka makes a good point."

"Yeah, but there's one that you're all forgetting, or ignoring," Kirito's sister snapped as she jabbed a finger at Rivka. "She doesn't care about saving Asuna, because she thinks this is our chance to save Mataras." The other girl stiffened with surprise as color flooded her cheeks. Kiriha nodded, as if confirming the facts to herself, then said, "She thinks that if we revive Saphira, it might bring her boyfriend running back to us, and then everything'll be okay."

The color in Rivka's face deepened, and a flash of anger appeared in her eyes. Before Kirito could intervene, she shouted, "First of all, he's one of my oldest friends, regardless of how I feel about him! Second, if I'm right, we could save two people with one life! Doesn't that make more sense?!" She turned to their leader at the end of her rant, as if to appeal to him.

"Even if we did save Saphira, there's no way Mataras can just come back after everything he's done!" Kiriha snarled. "What about all the people that he's killed?!"

"You can't prove that!" Rivka shot back, but she knew it was a weak argument.

"Even if he isn't the guy in red that everyone talks about, he still killed Keita!" Kiriha shouted, her voice continuing to rise in volume.

 _Bang!_

"Enough!" Kirito's voice, coupled with his fist slamming into the table, was enough to stun the arguing girls into silence- he rarely raised his voice outside of battle. Shooting them both a disapproving look, he said in a milder tone, "We don't even know if the item is real or not. So this argument doesn't solve anything- at least, not until we can verify that the item is authentic, and beyond that, in our possession. In the meantime, can we not act like kids fighting over our favorite toy?"

Both Kiriha and Rivka reddened further at his rebuke, but neither of them spoke out against it. Sachi looked incredibly uncomfortable with the whole thing, and Kirito realized that if the item _did_ exist, and they got it, the final decision would likely fall to him as to who they should revive.

 _Maybe it would be better for all of us if the revival item didn't turn out to be real…_

* * *

"So, it's Christmas Eve."

"I have a calendar, I know what day it is," I muttered as I sheathed the Taiyoken, having just finished practicing my forms with it. Taking a deep breath of cold evening air, I watched my exhalation become visible before evaporating. For whatever silly reason, watching puffs of steam coming out of my mouth never ceased to intrigue me.

"Gonna drop off any presents?" my companion asked from his place by the camp fire.

"Oh, perhaps one," I shrugged. "Depends on how much coal I'll have to dig through."

"Well, bring some of that back if you can," the other young man said as he added some more branches to keep the flames alive. "It burns longer than these twigs you've been collecting."

"Wasn't my idea to come to a place where all the branches are soaking wet and unusable for fire," I grumbled.

" _Technically_ it was," my partner chuckled.

"Well aren't we funny?" I groused.

"Hey now, I thought the guy in the red suit was supposed to be a jolly fellow," he sneered back at me. "Not really feeling the 'goodwill toward men' up in here."

"I don't have any goodwill left," I snorted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some stockings to stuff."

"Hehe…"

" _Not_ an innuendo!"

* * *

Kirito, Kiriha, and Sachi were running through the snowy forest of floor thirty-five, heading for a huge pine tree that was visible in the distance. It was on a part of the floor that had remained untouched up to this point, but supposedly a fast-travel point was supposed to appear around the area that would lead any player directly to it, where the event boss, Nicholas the Renegade, was to appear. Rivka had wanted to come along, but Kirito had put his foot down, saying that her level was too low for them to risk her coming with them. She had been pretty upset, but after a long time of arguing, she was forced to concede the point.

What went unsaid, but seemed to exacerbate Rivka's darkened mood, was the fact that if she had kept up with her training like the others, she would have been able to join them for the hunt.

Now, fast travel points in the wild were practically non-existent in Aincrad, with the exception of events like this. As such, it wouldn't be too hard to spot for an experienced player like Kirito. Unfortunately, that also meant-

"There!" Kirito shouted as he pointed to a smaller tree, where there was a small, glowing sphere about the size of a classroom globe model. The girls never paused in their strides, changing direction without missing a beat to follow Kirito.

Time was of the essence. They couldn't be the only one after the revival item, and the sooner they got to the boss area, the better chances they had of defeating it before anyone could come and fight them for possession of it.

The thought had barely crossed Kirito's mind when the sound of a teleport crystal alerted them to the presence of another group. The boy growled with frustration, but he turned around instantly, signaling for the girls to do the same.

Out of the shining light rippling in the air not twenty feet away was Fuurinkazan, Klein's guild. At the head of the group was the man himself, grinning cheerily at them. "Merry Christmas, Kirito," he said as he walked forward a few feet to stand between their groups.

"You followed us?" Kirito asked heavily.

"Of course," Klein shrugged. "Cost us a pretty penny, the corridor crystal we used to get here." The others raised their eyebrows at that- corridor crystals were advanced teleportation crystals that could take you to anywhere you had been before, not just teleport gates and safe zones. However, they were exceedingly rare, and as such, people that got them on quests- or on one or two known occasions, as monster drops- could sell them for prices in the higher seven-digit range.

The fact that Klein's guild had invested so heavily into this quest meant that it would be very difficult to dissuade them from pursuing it- if that were even possible. Kirito worried that force might the only option available to them, and while he was reasonably confident in their ability to fight of the Fuurinkazan guild, he worried that it would take too long and leave them in no shape to fight the event boss. That aside, he did not like the idea of raising his sword against Klein, a man who had been nothing but a good friend to them.

"Look, why don't we do a joint raid on this thing?" Klein was suggesting. "We all stand a better chance at defeating an event boss together. We'll divvy up the col evenly, and whoever gets the event drop can keep it. That's fair, right?"

"No way in hell," Kiriha said immediately. "We already know who we're going to use the item on- and we've lost too many people as it is."

"No one's disputing that, but we've lost people, too," Klein said with a small frown. "Look, fair's fair. I just don't wanna see you guys wind up dead trying to chase down something that may or may not exist!"

 _But… if we can save Saphira… or Asuna…_ Kirito thought bitterly as his hand rose up to grip the handle of his new sword. _What choice do we have?_

He was saved by the bell- literally. Sounds of wind chimes alerted them to the arrival of a third party, causing everyone else to go for their weapons as a group of about forty men and women appeared in the clearing.

"Looks like we're not the only ones being followed," Kirito commented to Klein, who looked thoroughly annoyed once the identities of the third party became clear.

"The Holy Dragon Alliance…" the katana-wielding man said sourly. "Great. They'll do just about anything shady for a rare item."

"Boss, what do we do?" one of Klein's men asked as they drew swords, threatening the opposing guild members so that they didn't get too close.

"We hold 'em off!" Klein ordered. "It's our fault that these guys found this place, now we're gonna fix our mistake!" Over his shoulder, he added, "Go, Kirito! We'll hold these guys back so you can do what you gotta do!"

The gesture surprised and touched the others, and each of them resolved to repay Klein however they could at a later date. It would have to wait, though. Right now, they had an event boss to defeat.

* * *

They all exited the portal within seconds of each other. The area around them looked much the same as the one that they had left behind, save that the ancient pine tree was much closer than before, not even a minute's jog away.

"Hurry!" Kirito insisted. "Midnight is almost here, and we need to be there!"

 _Snick! Thwack! Shrrk!_

"What the…?" Kirito grunted as he fell down to the snow, completely paralyzed. Behind him, he heard the same thing happening to the girls. "Sugu?! Sachi?!" he asked them desperately, fearing the worst.

"We're okay…" Kiriha grunted. "Just stunned. I can see a small knife in your leg. Sachi's been hit in the arm. I think I got hit somewhere on my back, but I'm having a hard time telling."

"I'm okay," Sachi confirmed, and Kirito heaved a sigh of relief.

"Did a mob do this?" Kiriha wondered. "Could it be the event boss?"

"I doubt it," Kirito muttered, trying his hardest to move his limbs, but failing entirely. "So far bosses have always done an 'introduction' of themselves before beginning a fight, and this doesn't fit their pattern at all."

"Then how did this happen?" Sachi wondered aloud in a trembling voice. "I thought we were the first ones to find this place. Klein and everyone else had to follow us here because they didn't know where it was."

Kirito thought for a moment before he said, "Maybe someone snuck in here while we were arguing with Klein and his guild. Real question is, where are they now?"

"Where you bunglers can't interfere," a rough voice growled from the tree line. Kirito and Sachi stiffened in surprise as they recognized the speaker.

Kiriha did one more than that- she drew in a sharp breath before shouting, "You coward! You're after the revival item, too?!"

"That, and the EXP and other items that will undoubtedly be present at an event like this," Mataras said as he strode out of the trees, bright red cloak flapping in the winter wind. However, he stayed outside their peripheral vision, so that they could not see his face, just be aware of his presence. "Speaking of, I have to go. Don't do anything stupid." The last words carried a hint of menace in them as he walked away, boots crunching in the freshly-fallen snow.

After about a minute had passed, they all heard the bell tolling the midnight hour, and Kirito's heart sank as he realized that they were too late. The boss would be appearing beneath the giant tree, and Mataras would be there to confront it, alone. Skilled as his former friend was, Kirito held doubts that any one player could defeat a boss on their own.

 _Then again, if I were in his position, I'd do the exact same thing,_ he realized. It was clear that Mataras was going to try to revive his sister. Whether or not he cared to survive the attempt might be another matter.

* * *

I stood there, waiting amid the biting wind and frozen tears that fell from the sky. Before me stood a tree as tall as a small mountain, ice gripping the trunk and some of the larger branches. In my ears rang the sounds of the bell announcing the arrival of Christmas morning. My right hand gripped my flaming sword in anticipation of the upcoming fight, perhaps the most important one in my life.

 _It'll be fine,_ I thought warily. _I've done this before, and I can do it again._

Then came the sound of sleigh bells, leading me to look up directly at the vehicle of Father Christmas. There were no reindeer flying it, which if I'm being honest, was disappointing at some level. However, I had little time to contemplate that detail, due to the looming, imposing figure descending, dressed in a red coat trimmed with white wool.

He landed with a concussive explosion of snow and wind that I'm sure was visible, even to my former allies. When it cleared, there stood Nicholas the Renegade- as grotesque a rendition of the man as I had ever seen. It looked like the twenty-foot-tall love child of Saint Nick and a zombie from those Transylvania movies by Adam Sandler.

"Feliz Navidad, Papa Noel," I muttered, getting into my fighting stance. "Any chance I'm on the good list?"

The menacing figure growled unintelligibly as its name appeared over its head, along with a wicked-looking axe.

"Figured," I muttered. "By the way, is that for cutting up wood for the fire? I know a place 'yule' like."

* * *

Ten minutes went by with no signs of the poison wearing off, and they could all hear the sounds of a fierce battle taking place by the base of the tree that they had wanted to reach. Kiriha had spent the first few minutes shouting obscenities after Mataras, but she soon lost her fiery spirit and fell to being quietly depressed with her comrades.

"What do we do, Kirito?" Sachi asked softly.

"Hope that boss kills him so that we can move in and finish it off," Kiriha muttered sourly.

"Sugu…" Kirito said warningly, causing the girl to grumble and mutter a curse into the snow. Hearing it, and remembering the words she had hurled after Mataras, he flicked his eyes back and asked, "Where did you learn how to talk like that?"

* * *

Leaping over the whistling axe, I pinned Nicholas' arm to the ground with my sword before hurling two daggers into his eyes, causing the boss to bellow and yank his arm back, throwing me into the snow for the umpteenth time.

"Gotta say, getting parapa-pum-pummeled wasn't what I had in mind for the holdiays,"I grunted, whipping out a healing crystal that instantly restored me to full health. "Time to jingle some bells."

* * *

"Anyone else getting frostbite yet?" Kiriha complained.

"You can't get frostbite in this game," Kirito muttered.

"You can be affected with a frozen condition, basically frostbite," she argued.

"No, when you get frostbite, you lose fingers and toes," he argued back. "Here, we can grow back limbs that we lose. So, not frostbite."

* * *

"You know…" I growled, driving a spear into the boss' coat, pinning it place. "I think I'm going to skip Christmas this year…" Leaping up high as the boss turned around, trying to find out where I'd gone, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with it. "…and go straight for Boxing Day."

Fist aflame, I socked the monster in the jaw, draining the very last vestiges of its health points, and mixing the white snow with multitudes of blue and green flakes. I dropped to the ground, already pulling open the notification that told me what I had won.

 _With the boss Feliz Navi-dead, it's time to found out if this will this be a Merry Christmas or a depressing New Year?_ I wondered.

* * *

Finally, the poison began to wear off, letting the group pull the blades out of their bodies and refresh their lost health points. They had just finished when Kirito became aware of another; a silent presence watching them. "Guys, weapons out," he ordered as he turned to see a figure in a red hood, their face hidden by the cowl of his crimson cloak, topped with a scarlet cursor. He knew he didn't want to kill Mataras, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't fight him if he had to.

Kiriha moved quickly to stand by her brother, her face twisted in a snarl as she glared at Mataras. Sachi regarded him with sad, pitying eyes, but she too drew her knife to defend herself if need be.

"What is it?" Kirito asked the silent boy. "Did you get what you wanted?"

"Does this look like the face of victory to you?" Mataras replied flatly.

"Hard to tell with you standing where we can't see your face," his former friend muttered, keeping an eye out for any trickery he might try to pull. "So did you get it? Did you get the revival item?"

The other boy just regarded them in complete silence for a minute, a silence that seemed amplified by the falling snow around them. Then, unexpectedly, he tossed something to Kirito, underhanded, so as not to be perceived as an attack. "Merry Christmas."

The swordsman in black caught the item with his left hand. It turned out to be a blue orb, encased in a gold pattern that made it slightly resemble an eye. Kirito held it out for Sachi, who used her appraisal skill on it. It must have not required a very high level to read, because it was only a second before the girl read out loud, "This is the Divine Stone of Revival. It can be used to bring any player back to life, so long as it is… administered within ten seconds." Her shoulders slumped, Kiriha let out a groan of anguish, and Kirito felt despair wash over him.

It was all for naught. Even if they had been the ones to get the stone, there was no way to bring back Saphira or Asuna, or anyone else that had long since died. _Ten seconds…that must be how long it takes for the microwave charge to build up after your avatar dies._

He looked back up to Mataras, only to see that he was gone without a trace. Even still, he whispered, "I'm sorry… We wanted to see her again, too."

* * *

"So how'd it go?" my comrade asked as I stepped out of the glowing light of the teleport effect.

"About as well as I expected," I said sourly, my mood even more foul than normal. "It exists, but it doesn't do what we had hoped. I was a fool to believe that I could make things right by trying to-" I stopped talking as I noticed that I had received a message notification.

I stopped thinking altogether when I realized that the message was from Saphira.

My comrade stood up and walked over to see what was happening, saying, "What's wrong? Ghost of Christmas Past just show up?"

"More or less," I said hoarsely, showing him what had captured my attention.

"Whoa," he muttered. "How is that…? Oh, wait. Timed message. She could have sent this to you at the beginning of the game, but it wouldn't show up until the day she designated it for."

"I'm not so stupid as to believe that this was a live message," I snarled, within an ace of striking him. However, I decided that whatever it was that Victoria had sent me would be a lot more important than dealing with him for the moment. "Let's see…" I tapped on the message, and was surprised to find two items suddenly sitting in my lap- one was a recording crystal, and the other was a small wooden box.

More intrigued by the crystal, I set the box down by my feet, and hit a small button on the diamond-shaped item. It lit up with yellow lights from the inside akin to a lava lamp. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Saphira's voice coming from the blue object. My companion moved away a few paces to give me some privacy, something I was grateful for.

"Merry Christmas, Brother," Victoria said, sounding like she was smiling. "If you're hearing this, then that means that the last few months to a year have been in vain for me. I guess that sucks, huh? …In case you're wondering, I'm recording this a little after Mom and Dad died, because if something were to happen to me, well… I worry about you, even with me here to help keep you in line. If I'm not, I'm not really sure what you'll have become. I just… wanna make sure I leave you with some kind of closure."

She sighed, and it sounded like she was rubbing her face. "I hope that wherever you are, Michael, you're safe, that you're happy, and most importantly, that you are surrounded by people who love you. I know it will seem as though the whole world has turned against you, but there _are_ people here who will stand by you, no matter what. Kirito, Reiko, Kiriha, Asuna… We all care about you, and we want you to be happy. So no matter where you are right now, I want you to go and join everyone for Christmas. Exchange gifts. Eat good food. Sing silly songs. Laugh with them, cry with them, it _doesn't matter_ , just so long as you are _with_ them."

My vision fogged up a bit, but I blinked it away, determined not to break down because of this. Still, my sister continued on from beyond the grave, saying, "I hope that I have the chance to delete this message before it ever reaches you, and that I can someday tell you all of this in person. But… Life doesn't always go the way we expect, and I hope that you'll forgive me for leaving you.

"And if you don't, then at least forgive yourself. I know you'll blame yourself for whatever has happened to me. That might be harder for you, but you have to do it. Otherwise… Well, I've said enough. No, wait! Two more things." She laughed, bringing the hint of a smile to my own face.

"One, check that box before what's inside breaks out. Two, I love you, Bro. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and remember that I'll be watching out for you."

The message crystal went dark and fell into my lap again. I sniffed and swiftly tucked it into my inventory so that nothing could happen to it by mistake. It could be played an unlimited number of times, and I was sure that this was not the last time I would listen to her final words, as they were.

 _If I only I could do what you wanted,_ I thought grimly. _It's too late now- not even you could've envisioned what I have become…_

"What did she mean about the box breaking out?" my comrade asked.

"Did you eavesdrop?"

"A little bit," he admitted. "You looked out of sorts, so I thought I'd make sure you weren't about to have a breakdown."

"Crimson, I swear I will-"

 _Crack!_

I paused mid-threat to look down at the box that my sister had left for me. "What the…?"

"Uh… did she send you a gift that self-destructs?" 'Crimson' asked as he knelt by the wooden container.

Joining him, I muttered, "Technically it wouldn't be the first time."

"When-? Oh right," my comrade chuckled, causing me to roll my eyes.

 _Crack!_ Another sudden sound caused us both to refocus our attentions on the second gift. There was no lock on the box, so I just grasped the edges of the lid and lifted it, only to widen my eyes and say, "Oh."

* * *

On the way back, Kirito, Kiriha, and Sachi had all agreed to tell Rivka nothing about Mataras' appearance. They knew it would only upset her more than it was worth. As for the revival item, Kirito put it in his inventory where he could easily access it if the need ever arose.

"We couldn't save Asuna or Saphira, or the other Cats," he said firmly. "But we _can_ save the people that are still alive if we keep fighting as hard as we can. And if bad luck gets in our way, well…" He sighed heavily and said, "At least we can prevent one more person from being taken from their families."

"And what about Mataras?" Kiriha asked. "What do we do the next time we see him? He _did_ attack us without provocation."

"I'm still not really sure," Kirito admitted. "If he wanted us dead, he would have killed us back there. I don't doubt that he's the one targeting all those players, but I don't think that we fit his criteria for elimination."

"Just because he won't kill us doesn't mean it's safe to be letting him loose in Aincrad," she replied tiredly. "He's too dangerous."

"It's Christmas," Sachi interrupted gently. "Let's just… Leave it for now? I just want to go home and…" Tears pooled in her eyes as she sniffled. "Let's have Christmas with the people we can, while we can."

"Of course," Kirito nodded. Without thinking, he reached out and pulled Sachi into a tight embrace. "I know this hasn't been a good year, Sachi, but… Merry Christmas."

At first the girl was surprised, but then she melted into the hug, burying her face in his shoulder as she replied, "Merry Christmas, Kirito."

"Ugh, get a room," Kiriha teased them.

Both Kirito and Sachi reddened and pulled apart, babbling protests, even as the forest-city of Zumfut's midnight air rang with the sound of Kiriha's laughter.

* * *

"So what now?" Crimson asked as he pulled on a dark red cloak that complimented his mid-length raven hair. Following that was a straight sword with a silver handle and an orange blade that went in the sheathe at his waist. His dark eyes flashed dangerously as he added, "Shall we begin in earnest?"

Mataras threw on his own bright red cloak and checked that his sword was on his hip before he held out a fist. A second later, an orange-and-red dragon landed on his arm and settled on his shoulder, warbling happily as its scales glittered like embers in lively fire. Meeting the dragon's strikingly golden eyes with his own silvery orbs, Mataras said, "Let us begin."

* * *

 **Kirito: You seem to have completely lost your mind at this point.**

 **Mataras: That was the impression I was trying to give off, yes.**

 **Asuna: How'd you know about the parts you weren't there for?**

 **Mataras: Eh?**

 **Asuna: This is supposed to be you retelling the story to Saphira's Hollow. So how'd you know about the parts you weren't there for?**

 **Mataras: That'll be explained at a later date. And before you ask, no, it will not be during the next chapter.**

 **Kirito: Then what should we expect in the next chapter?**

 **Mataras: Well, next part should bring Silica into things, but with Kiriha, Rivka, and Sachi along for the ride, we can expect to see some differences.**

 **Asuna: What will you be doing?**

 **Mataras: Oh, I'm sure I'll make an appearance, but for the most part, I want to keep people wondering as what I'm really up to. You know, aside from dealing out death in spades to criminal players.**

 **Kirito: So who's your new partner, by the way? You totally abandon your old friends and suddenly you've got a new buddy?**

 **Mataras: Also to be explained at a later time.**

 **Asuna: _When_ is the next chapter coming out?**

 **Mataras: Whenever I can manage to get it done. Later!**

 **Kirito: Every time...**

 **Asuna: Next time- Monsters, Tamed and Wild**


End file.
